Four people are kidnapped and beaten, possibly tortured. They are bound, gagged and taken out to a remote rural area where they are executed with a bullet to the head. Then they’re left to rot in the elements.
No one would fault you for thinking this is likely a scene right out of the war-torn Middle East, where the fundamentalist terrorist group Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, has run roughshod over the land. As it takes over huge swaths of territory, the well-funded organization commits barbaric atrocities on a daily basis, even beheading American journalists.
But we’re not talking Syria or Iraq—actually, much closer to home. Mostly gone from the headlines though just as brutal and even deadlier in nature, the bloody drug war in Mexico just a few hours’ drive from San Antonio drags on, producing a staggering estimated death toll of 70,000 over the last decade.
Many critics accuse the United States of turning a blind eye to its neighbor’s suffering, despite direct U.S. involvement since the high demand for drugs north of the border has not abated.
Just south of the Texas-Mexico border, ruthless drug cartels like Los Zetas and Cartel del Golfo operate with impunity, often in close collaboration with corrupt government officials. These transnational criminal organizations have unleashed deadly violence on innocent people, including decapitation, mass murder, kidnappings, torture and other horrible crimes against humanity.
One case that briefly captured the attention of American media outlets was that of three siblings from Progreso, a small U.S. border town nestled between Harlingen and McAllen in the Rio Grande Valley, the southernmost tip of Texas.
The siblings were reportedly kidnapped by a government official’s military-style bodyguard unit. The victims—U.S. citizens Erica Alvarado, 26, and her brothers, Alex, 22, and José Ángel, 21, as well as her boyfriend, Mexican citizen José Guadalupe Castañeda Benítez, 32—were later found bound, gagged and badly decomposed. They were all shot in the head. Sadly, their story is not uncommon in the volatile Texas-Mexico border region.
“This is not an isolated event. This has been repeated,” notes Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera, a professor at University of Texas at Brownsville and a border violence expert.
Neighborly Neglect
Mexico is our neighbor and one of our top trade partners, and its culture plays an integral part of the American melting pot, but an honest national conversation about crimes against humanity garners little attention—even though cartels are responsible for a higher count of American casualties compared to atrocities committed by ISIS.
Drive 281 brush-laden miles south of San Antonio, through the subtropical Rio Grande Valley, and, across the border from Brownsville, you’ll end up in Matamoros, the second-most populous city in the state of Tamaulipas, which many observers consider ground zero for the country’s drug war.
The Valley and Tamaulipas have an intimate connection. Many Mexican-American families have relatives in Tamaulipas, and there is a thriving border culture that reflects the language and traditions of both countries. However, for years now, the U.S. State Department has included Tamaulipas in its Mexico Travel Warning, advising Americans to steer clear of the state. The most recent warning, issued on Christmas Eve, noted that there are safe resort areas which thousands of citizens safely visit each year.
But there’s also a dark side to this typically hospitable land.
“Crime and violence are serious problems and can occur anywhere. U.S. citizens have fallen victim to criminal activity, including homicide, gun battles, kidnapping, carjacking, and highway robbery,” the warning states.
Correa-Cabrera said she’s heard various versions surrounding the murder of the Progreso siblings—they may have been involved in organized crime, particularly with the illegal sale of gasoline and drug trafficking. But no one knows for sure, and there’s no official account of the investigation.
“Everything is unofficial,” she says. “I think that the U.S. Consulate in Matamoros should have a little bit more knowledge of what is happening. We are talking about U.S. citizens being abducted and kidnapped.”
The victims represent a fraction of Americans who were killed in Mexico in recent years. According to the State Department, 81 Americans were murdered in Mexico in 2013, jumping to 85 last year.
Many Americans killed south of the border were originally kidnapped by cartels and other criminal organizations—more than 130 last year. The count is likely much higher, since only a fraction of the cases are reported to police.
In Tamaulipas, thousands of people go back and forth into Texas to eat, shop, visit family and friends, and for work. But as the hustle and bustle of daily life goes on, the danger stemming from the drug war lurks night and day.
“We are talking about neighbors, commerce and economic links,” Correa-Cabrera said. “The United States should be worried about the people who have been kidnapped and murdered.”
While mainstream U.S. media outlets have largely ignored atrocities committed in Mexico, the U.S. government, through programs like the $2.4 billion Merida Initiative, fund federal Mexican military operations against cartels. And U.S. law enforcement agencies have played a key role on the ground, from the FBI to Homeland Security and the Drug Enforcement Agency.
Deaf Ears
U.S. Congressman Filemon Vela, who represents the RGV border region, wrote Vice-President Joe Biden, imploring him to pressure Mexico to secure its side of the border.
“While concerted efforts by the Mexican government and military have reduced violence in many areas, the state of Tamaulipas has seen a rapid escalation in violent criminal activity which has impacted residents on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border and weakened our border economy,” Vela wrote Biden.
In his letter, Vela made specific reference to the murder of the Progreso siblings as an in-your-face example of why more action is needed.
Erica Alvarado, her boyfriend and her brothers disappeared on October 13 after stopping to eat at La Curva Texas, a hole in the wall restaurant in Tamaulipas. Witnesses reported that soldiers with “Grupo Hercules” uniforms kidnapped the victims.
According to Gerardo Acevedo Danache, a lawyer who represents the murdered siblings’ mother, Raquel Alvarado, “Grupo Hercules” handed Erica, Alex, José and Castañeda Benítez over to a cartel. In late October, an anonymous tipster told Mexican authorities where they could find the badly decomposed bodies of Erica, Alex, José and Castañeda Benítez.
“On the day Erica disappeared, she was set to start an assistant nursing program in Harlingen,” Danache told the Current. “The two brothers were migrant workers.” Even before their bodies were found, rumors spread through the region that they were criminals who probably had their deaths coming to them, despite the lack of evidence pointing to wrongdoing on their part.
“Somebody asked me about whether they were bad kids. They are not,” Danache said. “I challenge Mexican authorities to produce those records. How many investigations were their names in?”
Human Rights
In 2013, Human Rights Watch, an international non-governmental watchdog group, released a 186-page report detailing forced disappearances in Mexico. The case of the Progreso siblings reads just like a chapter out of this report, and Tamaulipas is mentioned no less than 48 times.
“What sets these crimes apart is that, for as long as the fate of the victim remains unknown, they are ongoing. Each day that passes is another that authorities have failed to find victims, and another day that families continue to suffer the anguish of not knowing what happened to a loved one,” the report states.
The report documented nearly 250 disappearances stretching back to 2007 and in more than 140 of the cases, evidence pointed toward forced disappearances.
It didn’t help any that law enforcement investigations where shoddy at best and usually never identified the culprits.
But Raul Salinas, a former FBI agent who worked in Mexico City for 27 years and the former mayor of the Texas border city of Laredo, points out that kidnapping cases are difficult to resolve.
“These are very difficult investigations because the individuals that conduct these crimes … they know how to handle these kidnappings,” Salinas explained. “The U.S. has no authority [in Mexico]. You have to work together with Mexican authorities and they conduct investigations.”
Another challenge for law enforcement in Mexico, which the Human Rights Watch report echoes, is that witnesses often don’t want to talk to authorities for fear of retribution.
Salinas knows this because he’s investigated kidnappings of Americans and Mexicans.
“Most of the ones that I investigated in Mexico were for money, for ransom. But there’s been others that have been related to criminal activity,” Salinas said. “There’s a fear of reporting them. The main concern of a relative of a kidnap victim is to ensure the safe return of their loved one.”
The Investigation
Since Raquel buried her children last year, she’s heard nothing about the investigation. There is no indication that authorities have identified any suspects and they’ve made no public mention of even a motive for the gruesome killings.
“As far as I’m aware, the Mexican authorities are not talking about the case. It seems like the case is not important anymore. And that’s a problem,” Danache said.
Correa-Cabrera echoed his point.
“The crazy thing is nobody is saying anything … There are more questions than answers,” she said. “This is the job of the authorities, otherwise who does the investigation?”
The last piece of public information about the case is that federal authorities in Mexico, through the attorney general, took command of the investigation and the case file has been sent to Mexico City.
“And they are not disclosing anything,” Danache said, explaining that the case being sent to Mexico City makes him feel a little better. “I don’t see that the federal government is going to try to cover up for the municipalities.”
His viewpoint is a result of protests in Mexico and international press coverage after 43 students were kidnapped and murdered by police on orders from a mayor in Guerrero.
“I feel even better. I feel confident that even if we don’t trust the investigations in Tamaulipas, I don’t assume or feel in any way that the federal government is going to try to cover any wrongdoing,” Danache said.
He is trying to schedule a meeting between Congressman Vela and Raquel, who is Vela’s constituent, in hopes Vela can pressure Mexican authorities to release an update on the investigation to the family. Similarly, Danache is trying to set up a meeting with the Mexican Consul, either in Brownsville or McAllen, to send a request to Mexico City for an update on the investigation.
And Correa-Cabrera said U.S. citizens should also be pressuring their representatives to push the Mexican government to thoroughly and transparently investigate the case.
“These are not the only ones kidnapped, that is the main issue,” she said of Americans who meet tragic fates in Mexico. “I wouldn’t say that this is true, but you do have to wonder—is it because they are Mexican American and not white?”
In the meantime, while Danache pressures Vela and the Mexican consuls in the Rio Grande Valley, Raquel and the rest of her family, including Erica’s young daughter, remain in the dark, which sadly, is not a new trend.
While the Progreso siblings were found and Raquel and her family were able to bury her children, not knowing who killed her children and not knowing whether the perpetrators will be brought to justice, leaves her with no closure—and a hole in her heart.
“She just wants justice,” Danache said.
Close to Home
The magnitude of murder and disappearances in Mexico is staggering. The brutality that cartels exert on innocent people is shocking and is nothing short of barbaric. The fact that over and over the government that is supposed to protect the people of Mexico is implicated in crime, time and time again, is an outrage, observers lament.
And it’s not hard to find people on both sides of the border who have been affected by the violence in Mexico.
Danache knows from personal experience. His brother, Jose, was taken at a roadblock near Ciudad Victoria in Tamaulipas a little more than three years ago—never to be seen again.
“We couldn’t even bury him,” Danache said. “That’s why I know pain. I cannot be silent. Yesterday, it was my family. Today, it’s the Alvarados. Tomorrow, it will be someone else. We need to stop living in fear.”
MEXICO’S DRUG WAR BY THE NUMBERS
- 2013: 81 Americans murdered.
- 2014: As of December 24, 85 Americans murdered.
- 2014: At least 130 kidnappings of Americans reported to consuls and the U.S. Embassy in Mexico between January and November 2014.
- 2012: 105,682 kidnappings.
- 2012: 1,317 kidnappings reported to police.
SOURCE: Mexico’s Institute of Statistics and Geography
- 2006 to 2012: 26,121 disappearances.
- 2006 to 2012: 7,000 unidentified bodies in morgues and common graves.
SOURCE: State Department Human Rights Practices Report (2013)
This article appears in The Unrelenting Drug War on Our Doorstep.
