This is why travel to Mexico is stupid and dangerous for Americans. PROGRESO — The father of three siblings who were abducted two weeks ago confirmed Thursday afternoon that their bodies were found near Matamoros, Mexico. Mexican officials discovered four decomposing bodies on Wednesday, two weeks after witnesses reported the siblings from Progreso were kidnapped in El Control, Mexico, while visiting their father. Pedro Alvarado, the father of Erica Alvarado Rivera, 26, and her brothers, Alex, 22, and Jose Angel, 21, identified the bodies for Mexican authorities. Also missing is Ericas boyfriend, 32-year-old Jose Guadalupe Castaneda Benitez, who is also believed to be dead. From her home in Progreso, surrounded by television news cameras and reporters, the mother of the siblings, Raquel Alvarado, 46, cried as she told the media about their deaths. Officials from the Tamaulipas, Mexico, chamber of commerce and representatives from the City of Progreso came to offer condolences to the mother at her home. Nahomi Rodriguez, 45, who is the aunt of the slain siblings, said friends witnessed members of the Hercules Unit, formed by the Matamoros mayor, take the them by force. Rodriguez said the family is honest and well-respected in El Control, and could offer no motive for the kidnappings. Rodirguez said days after the four went missing, Ericas Black Jeep Cherokee was found in a parking lot belonging to a relative of the mayor. The vehicle was returned to the family in Progreso, but there was no explanation given for how a relative of the mayor came into possession of the vehicle. Fifteen other U.S. residents have been murdered in the Texas border state of Tamaulipas since January 2013 — with six of the killings reported in Nuevo Laredo, three others in Matamoros and the rest in smaller cities. Tamaulipas, expected to be the next Eagle Ford boom site, remains an armed conflict zone between the Gulf Cartel and the breakaway more militaristic Zetas, and government corruption remains a significant problem. From 2008 to June 2014, 564 U.S. citizens have been reported killed in Mexico, according to U.S. State Department reports of deaths of citizens abroad. Most of those murders occurred in U.S. border states. The FBIs Laredo office has collected another 239 reports in the last decade of Americans kidnapped mostly in Tamaulipas — 121 have never been located, said Special Agent Michelle Lee, a San Antonio-based FBI spokesman in an interview last year. Houston Chronicle reporter Lise Olsen contributed. [email protected] Twitter: @amnelsen
Posted on: Fri, 31 Oct 2014 13:27:28 +0000
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