Brazen kidnappings and assassinations are common in Tamaulipas, the Mexican state that borders much of South Texas. But Americans get different treatment.
In these undated photos provided by the Penitas Police Department, from left are sisters Maritza Rios, 47, and Marina Rios, 48, and their friend, Dora Saenz, 53. who have not been heard from since Feb. 24, when they traveled from Texas into Mexico to sell clothes at a flea market. Within minutes of arriving in the Mexican border city of Reynosa in 2019, Estuardo Cifuentes found himself held at gunpoint.
The disturbing video, catching the aftermath of a shooting by apparent cartel gunmen, illustrated the near-absolute control criminal groups have in some parts of Mexico. But the incident also showcased the deference that drug traffickers often pay to the U.S. government, either in response to back-channel warnings from U.S. law enforcement or simply to head off the added pressure on their operations that comes with any high-profile investigation.
The Gulf cartel, whose various factions control much of Tamaulipas, released the kidnapped U.S. citizens not because of pressure from the Mexican government, but because of pressure from the United States, agreed Jacobo Dayán, a professor of international criminal law at the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City and an expert on human rights issues in Mexico.
The human rights worker who exposed the killings of Gustavo Pérez Beriles, Wilberto Mata Estrada, Jonathan Aguilar Sánchez, Alejandro Trujillo Rocha and Gustavo Ángel Suárez Castillo was also targeted by the Mexican military with espionage software. Taken together, Dayán said, the two incidents paint a disturbing picture of both countries’ strategies to combat drug trafficking.
Those organizations have since further fractured and engage in periodic internal conflicts as well as armed confrontations with Mexican security forces. The gangs once focused on drug smuggling but are now involved in a wide range of criminal activities, including human trafficking and extortion. They often operate like authoritarian governments, spying on the populace and “disappearing” anyone they perceive to be a problem.
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