A Texas trooper has warned Americans to rethink traveling to Mexico as three women vanish after crossing the border to sell clothes at a flee market, joining the more than 500 US citizens that are missing in the country.
Lieutenant Chris Olivarez, of the Texas Department of Public Safety, has issued a stark warning for American travelers as many gear up for Spring Break and plan trips to the popular travel destination.
‘Our department is urging anyone traveling to Mexico, especially spring breakers, to avoid those areas, because right now it is too dangerous with the increase in violence and kidnappings in Mexico,’ Lieutenant Chris Olivarez told Fox News. ‘I can’t express enough to those thinking about traveling to Mexico, especially to spring breakers…to avoid those areas as much as possible.’
The warning comes after two sisters Maritza Trinidad Perez Rios, 47; Marina Perez Rios, 48, both of Peñitas, and their friend, Dora Alicia Cervantes Saenz, 53, went missing on February 24.
Officials said they were traveling in a green mid-1990s Chevy Silverado to a flea market in the city of Montemorelos, in Nuevo Leon state – around three hours from the border and never returned. Peñitas is just a few hundred feet from the Rio Grande River.
It comes after the highly publicized case where four Americans were abducted by a cartel after traveling into the country for a tummy tuck. Their abduction was caught on video last week. It received an avalanche of attention and was resolved in a matter of days. But the fate of the three women, who haven’t been heard from in about two weeks, remains a mystery and has garnered relatively little publicity.
Lieutenant Chris Olivarez (pictured) is ‘urging anyone traveling to Mexico, especially spring breakers, to avoid those areas, because right now it is too dangerous with the increase in violence and kidnappings’
Maritza Trinidad Perez Rios, 47, Marina Perez Rios, 48; both of Peñitas, and their friend, Dora Alicia Cervantes Saenz, 53, (pictured) went missing on February 24
They crossed into Mexico to sell clothes at flea market three hours away from the border (pictured: Maritza and Marina)
The husband of one of the missing three women spoke to her by phone while she was traveling in Mexico, and grew concerned when he couldn’t reach her afterwards, the Peñitas Police Chief Roel Bermea said.
‘Since he couldn’t make contact over that weekend, he came in that Monday and reported it to us,’ Bermea said.
Officials at the state prosecutor’s office said they have been investigating the women’s disappearance since Monday. Beyond that, officials in the US and Mexico haven’t said much about their pursuit of the three.
The husband of one of the women spoke to her by phone while she was traveling in Mexico, but grew concerned when he couldn’t reach her afterward (pictured: US-Mexico border)
The FBI said Friday it is aware that two sisters from Peñitas, a small border city in Texas near McAllen, and their friend have gone missing. Roel Bermea said their families have been in touch with Mexican authorities, who are investigating their disappearance.
The three women are among a startling 550 Americans who have been reported missing in Mexico, according to public records. This is a small part of the total 112,000 people missing in the country – and is a tiny percentage of the millions of US citizens who travel to Mexico every year for vacations and work.
But many relatives of the Americans still missing are asking why their loved ones haven’t been given a higher priority for Washington like the recent kidnapping.
Bermea said the women were traveling in a green mid-1990s Chevy Silverado to a flea market in the city of Montemorelos, in Nuevo Leon state (pictured Maritza)
Officials at the state prosecutor’s office said they have been investigating the women’s disappearance since Monday
The three women are just one of hundreds who have been reported missing in the country that are still missing. There are 550 Americans reported missing (pictured: Marina Rios)
For Lisa Torres, whose son Robert disappeared at 21, she grew angry as she watched the coverage of the four friends.
‘I’m so angry I couldn’t sleep, thinking about how my U.S. government acted in Matamoros with the kidnappings,’ she wrote on Twitter. ‘This only confirms that my US government can help, and they didn’t, in the case of my son. WHY?’
A lawyer, Geovanni Barrios, whose son was abducted in Reynosa at 17, told the Washington Post: ‘We see that when the U.S. government makes strong statements, there are results. But there aren’t only four Americans disappeared in Mexico. We don’t see [the US government] making these statements about the hundreds of other missing Americans.’
Latavia ‘Tay’ McGee and Eric James Williams both survived the experience. Shaeed Hakim Woodard and Zindell Zaquille Mckinley Brown were killed by the cartel
Members (pictured) of the Gulf Cartel’s Scorpions Group were abandoned on a Matamoros street and accused by the criminal organization of being behind the kidnapping of four Americans who traveled to the country for surgery
Unlike the many families still holding onto hope their loved ones will reappear, many don’t get the massive searches and government attention like the four Americans did. For most of the 112,000 Mexicans missing nationwide, the only ones looking for them are their desperate relatives.
The four Americans were caught in a drug cartel shootout in the border city of Matamoros, and video showed them being hauled off in a pickup truck. The two survivors were found Tuesday in a wooden shack near the Gulf Coast.
This week’s massive search for the four kidnapped Americans involved squads of Mexican soldiers and National Guard troops.
Authorities also lack manpower, equipment and training – things are so bad that authorities aren’t even able to identify tens of thousands of bodies that have been found.
