Puerto Vallarta (PVDN) – The Federal Bureau of Investigation or FBI ( Federal Bureau of Investigation ) in the United States is offering a reward of $40,000 dollars to anyone who provides information that helps locate Monica de Leon Barba, an American citizen kidnapped in Jalisco, Mexico in November of the year past.
According to the FBI, Monica was kidnapped in the municipality of Tepatitlán on November 29 while she was walking back home, and since then there has been no report of her. The 29-year-old girl was born in the state of Jalisco, but she has American nationality and was in Mexico for work.
Based on what local residents witnessed, her family and friends say that Monica was forcibly put into a van near a gym called Fit 4 Life in the Guadalupe subdivision. The incident occurred between 5:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. that Tuesday.
“Four terrible months have passed since my sister’s kidnapping, and although great efforts have been made every day to return her home, today we find ourselves without results,” commented Gustavo De Leon, who claims to be Monica’s brother, through social media.
And he added: “I cannot stop thinking about the suffering and fear that my sister has been in for the last 121 days, and that is why I beg you to help us spread the word, and the news of the reward offered by the FBI in order to return my sister safe and sound.”
In addition, in his post, Gustavo requested the direct intervention of Ken Salazar, United States ambassador to Mexico, from whom he demanded his full support and coordination with local authorities to locate his sister.
Monica’s relative called to stand against impunity or insecurity that US citizens have suffered in Mexico in recent months. They recalled the case of the four citizens who were kidnapped in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, at the beginning of March of this year, and who were later found, in which two were dead.
“Since my sister’s kidnapping we have all seen the news of various American citizens who have also been robbed of their freedom while traveling in Mexico, we cannot tolerate this impunity and cowardice of the Mexican government. I will not let my sister be another statistic because of bureaucratic inaction,” she concluded.
In 2022, Mexico reached the unprecedented figure of 100,000 missing persons. According to the National Registry of Missing and Unlocated Persons (RNPDNO), at the end of last year, 109,516 people were reported missing (at the cut-off time of 06:29 on December 31), Jalisco being the entity the most cases reported.
It indicates a historical total of more than 269,000 missing and unlocated people (close to 160,000 have been located). Segmented into various categories, the data shows that by sex, the highest number of disappeared corresponds to men with 81,449 cases, while 27,326 have been women (for 741 undetermined cases).
