Texas state authorities have recommended Americans not travel to Mexico over the spring break period due to security concerns.
Drug cartel violence is a serious hazard for anyone entering Mexico, as reported by the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS). It happened after four Americans were abducted last week just after crossing the border. Two of them were killed, and the other two were let go uninjured.
Earlier last month, when four Americans went to Matamoros, Mexico, a drug cartel abducted them and killed two of them. Another victim of the incident was a Mexican onlooker. The offending cartel has already offered an apology and turned over its own shooters to law enforcement.
A note left with the cartel gunmen, who had been left on the roadside, accused them of acting “under their own decision-making and lack of discipline” as well as apparently disregarding cartel norms over “saving the lives of the innocent”. The “Scorpion Group,” a renegade unit of the huge Gulf Cartel, signed it. According to Mexican investigators, the gang members mistook the Americans for rivals and opened fire on them as they made an attempt to flee.
“Right now, drug cartel violence and other criminal activity pose a substantial safety risk to anyone crossing into Mexico,” stated DPS Director Steven McCraw. Because of the ongoing bloodshed and the explosive nature of cartel operations, he continued, “We advise people not to travel to Mexico at this time.
The event might deteriorate ties between the two nations. The administration of President Joe Biden has been pushed by a Republican senator to permit the deployment of American troops across the border to combat the cartels. The proposals were labeled “arrogant” by Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
According to US authorities, two sisters from Texas and a friend who crossed the border last month to sell clothes at a flea market are currently missing in Mexico. After days passed with no communication, the husband of one of the women called Texas police to report that they were missing. The sisters Maritza Trinidad Perez Rios, 47, and Marina Perez Rios, 48, as well as their companion, Dora Alicia Cervantes Saenz, 53, were reported missing, according to the FBI.
The sisters are from Peitas, a tiny border town close to McAllen in Texas. Roel Bermea, the police chief in the border town of Penitas, stated, “We don’t know if they made it there.” He added that the FBI had been informed.
The women were reportedly driving to a flea market in the city of Montemorelos, some three hours from the border, in a green Chevy Silverado from the mid-1990s.
