Highway kidnappings in northern Mexico prompt calls for U.S. review of security

[Disir]

In the sometimes tense relationship between the United States and Mexico, security is often a wild card.

That could spell trouble for many people living in this country, including North Texas residents with ties to Mexico.

The recent kidnapping of a Dallas-area couple in the northeastern Mexico state of Tamaulipas illustrates the violent vulnerabilities along the U. S.- Mexico border.

All Mexican border states are under some type of security advisory from the U.S. government. But the strongest alerts are for the states of Tamaulipas and Coahuila, where the U.S. State Department warns against all non-essential travel.

The Dallas-area family was taken in April as they traveled to a funeral in the Mexico state of San Luis Potosí. Three hours from the Texas border, near the Tamaulipas capital of Ciudad Victoria, they became victims of a highway assault that led to 19 days in captivity.

News of a kidnapping is not a surprise to government officials on either side of the border.

“Over the last two years, Tamaulipas has deteriorated horribly,” said U.S. Rep. Filemon Vela, D-Brownsville, a member of the House Homeland Security Committee.

Vela said the emphasis on low homicide rates in border cities such as El Paso, Laredo and Brownsville is misplaced. Instead, the focus should be on the cartel war across the river in Tamaulipas, a state with a long history of smuggling.

A third of the Texas population of 26 million has Mexican ancestry, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates. Many Texans of Mexican ancestry still travel to northern Mexico, Vela said. But he said his own relatives no longer visit a family grave in Matamoros, across from Brownsville, because of safety concerns.

Disappearances
Exclusive: Highway kidnappings in northern Mexico prompt calls for U.S. review of security

And this time..........they really will deal with it. Yep. They mean it. Really, really, really.

 

[Tank]

Good thing that America only has good mexicans

 

[The Great Goose]

19 days. Omg thats horrifying.

They will divorce and they will never recover.

 

[waltky]

Activist slain in revenge for looking for her daughter...

Mexico: Activist slain in revenge for 'disappeared' search
Jun 29,`17 -- Prosecutors in northern Mexico said Thursday that criminals apparently killed a mother to punish her for the years she spent years searching for her missing daughter, a hunt that led to the arrest and jailing of suspects.

Miriam Rodriguez was killed in the northern state of Tamaulipas on May 10, which is Mothers Day in Mexico. She was one of many Mexicans who have taken it upon themselves to search for missing loved ones because police can't or won't. Irving Barrios, the Tamaulipas state attorney general, said that two men had been arrested and charged in the slaying and that prosecutors believe they killed Rodriguez in revenge for her investigations. "The strongest line of investigation is that this was an act of revenge for the work that Miriam carried out and which allowed for the detention of several people in relation to her daughter's kidnapping," Barrios said.

Barrios said the men knew at least one other suspect who had been jailed for the kidnapping and killing of Rodriguez' daughter Karen in 2014. Four other suspects have been implicated in the killing of Rodriguez, who belonged to the group Citizen Community in Search of the Disappeared in Tamaulipas. The group said Rodriguez's tireless search had eventually led to the discovery of her daughter's remains in an unmarked grave and she identified to authorities the man she held responsible.

Such groups have spread across Mexico in recent years as people search for their loved ones in the face of government inaction or indifference. Some 30,000 people have disappeared in the decade since Mexico announced a war on drug cartels. Tamaulipas, which borders Texas, has been plagued by drug violence, massacres and disappearances.

News from The Associated Press