Mexico kidnapping is a wakeup call

Elvia Díaz, Arizona Republic
·2 min read

Mexico’s violence is no joke – and the recent kidnapping and killing of U.S. citizens proves it.

The violence is nothing new for Mexicans left to pick up a trail of bodies during the past two decades.

But Americans have mostly been left alone in that raging war, seemingly because the cartels know that messing with U.S. citizens is bad for business.

Last Friday, people on both sides of the border were stunned when four U.S. citizens were snatched at gun point when they crossed the border into Matamoros in the state of Tamaulipas just across from Brownsville, Texas.

Now we know that two of them were killed and a third was injured. On Tuesday, the two Americans found alive were transported back to the United States.

No human should face this kind of violence

A member of the Mexican security forces stands next to a white minivan with North Carolina plates and several bullet holes, at the crime scene where gunmen kidnapped four U.S. citizens who crossed into Mexico from Texas, Friday, March 3, 2023. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said the four Americans were going to buy medicine and were caught in the crossfire between two armed groups after they had entered Matamoros, across from Brownsville, Texas, on Friday. (AP Photo)
A member of the Mexican security forces stands next to a white minivan with North Carolina plates and several bullet holes, at the crime scene where gunmen kidnapped four U.S. citizens who crossed into Mexico from Texas, Friday, March 3, 2023. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said the four Americans were going to buy medicine and were caught in the crossfire between two armed groups after they had entered Matamoros, across from Brownsville, Texas, on Friday. (AP Photo)

Images of the shooting and abduction in broad daylight – and the subsequent search that led authorities to discover the two bodies – are a grotesque display of the impunity that reins in Mexico and how Americans tiptoe around those dangers.

Details are still scant about the Americans’ trek into Mexico.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador had said it appeared the kidnapping was a case of mistaken identity. He quickly mobilized various law enforcement sectors to find them, prompting Mexicans to lament that he doesn’t do that for his own people caught in the cartel wars.

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Mexican officials said they arrested a 24-year-old who was guarding the house where the Americans were held but wouldn’t say whether he was linked to organized crime.

Tamaulipas attorney general Irving Barrios Mojica told media outlets that the Gulf Cartel operates in the region.

A drug war also has been raging on the region, prompting the U.S. to recently issue a travel advisory.

Details will keep emerging, and Mexico better get to the bottom of this horrific crime. No human being should face that kind of violence.

We can't ignore Mexico's drug problem

Americans are understandably shocked and horrified.

Mexico is America’s main economic trade partner, and tons of U.S. citizens flock to the southern border for cheaper doctors’ visits and medicine.

This kidnapping is more than alarming. It’s a wakeup call to stop ignoring the horrific violence raging south of the border and dismissing it as Mexico’s problem.

And no, this doesn’t mean the U.S. should invade Mexico militarily, as some conservatives propose, or that the border must be shut completely.

It’s time to stop polarizing the border and the drug trafficking just to score political points and get serious about pooling resources to combat these problems.

Our lives depend on it.

Elvia Díaz is editorial page editor for The Arizona Republic and azcentral. Reach her at 602-444-8606 or elvia.diaz@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on Twitter, @elviadiaz1. 

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Americans kidnapped in Mexico is a wakeup call