The mothers of two Americans who have been missing for more than five years after being kidnapped in Mexico have spoken out in interviews calling for their safe return.
Ernesto Garnica Jr., 28, and Roberto ‘Robert’ Franco Jr., 27, were kidnapped in separate incidents in 2017 and have not been seen or heard from since, leaving their families distraught.
“I feel like Robert was abandoned by his government, being a US citizen,” said Franco Jr.’s mother, Lisa Torres. New York Post on Monday. ‘I feel as if they had left him there in a country he doesn’t know. Robert has not been depicted in any shape or form.’
Garnica and Franco are among the approximately 550 Americans currently missing in Mexico, an issue that gained new attention following the highly publicized case where four Americans were kidnapped by a Mexican drug cartel after traveling to the country for cosmetic surgery.
In that case, two of the victims were killed by the kidnappers and the other two were rescued alive, but for the families of Garnica Jr. and Franco Jr., and many others, the fate of their loved ones remains painfully uncertain.
Ernesto Garnica Jr., 28, and Roberto ‘Robert’ Franco Jr., 27, were kidnapped in separate incidents in 2017 and have not been seen or heard from since, leaving their families distraught.
Garnica Jr. was last seen on August 31, 2017 in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, just across the border from his home in Brownsville, Texas, where he was visiting relatives to celebrate his 23rd birthday.
Days later, his burned-out Jeep Liberty was found on the side of a highway that connects Matamoros to the nearby Rio Grande. Inside was a corpse that was not Garnica Jr.’s, but has never been identified.
The missing American’s bank accounts were emptied days later, but his mother, Jeannette Cerecer Ruiz, told the Post that she is convinced he is still alive.
It is a terrible nightmare. Only God knows when it will end,” he told the newspaper.
Franco Jr. was last seen on July 28, 2017 as he left his home in Pasadena, Texas, to visit family in Agualeguas, Nuevo León, a city less than 50 miles from the Texas-Mexico border.
Border officials confirmed that he crossed into Mexico, but never reached his destination. Days later, her mother received a phone call demanding ransom and transferred thousands of dollars to the kidnappers, but she never saw her son again.
“Somewhere between the border crossing and her destination, something happened for sure, and that’s what we don’t know,” her mother Torres told the Post.
Torres said she felt her son’s case did not receive the same attention and response as the four Americans who were kidnapped earlier this month.
“I don’t know why, that’s why I want answers,” he said. Why didn’t she get the same answer? I wish someone would tell me.
Franco Jr.’s mother, Lisa Torres, is seen with her two children. He was last seen on July 28, 2017 as he was leaving his home in Pasadena, Texas to visit relatives in Agualeguas, Nuevo León.
These are the current travel advisories for Mexico from the United States government. Only two states, Yucatán and Campeche, are completely free of notices.
On March 3, South Carolinians Latavia McGee, her cousin Shaeed Woodward, and their friends Zindell Brown and Eric James crossed into Matamoros and were attacked about two hours later.
Gulf Cartel henchmen were seen on video forcing McGee into the bed of a pickup truck and dumping the bodies of Woodward, Brown and James into the vehicle.
The three men were allegedly accompanying McGee on the road trip from South Carolina across the border for McGee’s surgery.
The surgery was initially described as a tummy tuck, but a police report citing interviews with friends and family later described it as a “buttock augmentation,” better known as a Brazilian butt lift.
Mexican law enforcement officers are investigating the possibility that cartel members kidnapped the Americans thinking they were trespassing on their territory, according to an internal government document seen by Reuters.
DailyMail.com has revealed extensive criminal records of the four kidnapped US citizens and authorities have stated that ‘drug trafficking’ cannot be ‘ruled out’.
McGee, a mother of five, and James, who was shot in the leg, were rescued from a cartel hideout six and a half miles away in the rural town of El Tecolote Tuesday morning. Brown and Woodward were found dead in the house.
Mexican citizen and Matamoros resident Arely Servando, 33, was struck by a stray bullet and died at the scene.
So far six people have been detained in connection with the kidnapping, after the Gulf Cartel apologized and turned over five of its own members to local authorities.
Orange’s journey came to a screeching halt when he was denied entry because he did not have proper identification: The four continued on to Matamoros, where they were caught in gang crossfire before being kidnapped. Only Williams and McGee survived the ordeal.
Members (pictured) of the Gulf Cartel’s Grupo Escorpiones were abandoned on a Matamoros street and accused by the criminal organization of being behind the kidnapping of four Americans on March 3.
The henchmen were left with a note from their bosses, written in Spanish, apologizing for the murders and stating that they were happy to hand over those responsible.
They claimed that the assassins, who were part of the notorious Scorpions dissident group, operated outside the “cartel rules” and “condemned” the attack, adding that “the CDG has always respected the life and integrity of the innocent.”
Each suspect faces the barrel of 80 years in prison for kidnapping and 60 years for murder if he receives the higher sentence.
Over the weekend, a Texas resident was charged with purchasing one of the weapons used in the kidnapping in the United States and giving it to the cartel.
Roberto Lugardo Moreno made an initial appearance Monday in federal court in Brownsville after prosecutors said he admitted to buying firearms he knew would be going from a Mexican drug cartel to a Mexican drug cartel.
Moreno is charged with knowingly conspiring to export or ship from the United States a “multi-caliber AR-style pistol” for use by the Gulf Cartel, according to the criminal complaint.
His detention hearing is scheduled for Thursday.
