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 Editorials | Issues | December 2006 
Abductions Remind of Border Perils
 Jay Root - Fort Worth Star-Telegram
| | La Barranca ranch is shown in a rural area near Hidalgo, Mexico, Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2006. Two of the five men kidnapped from the ranch were released Wednesday, but a prominent Laredo businessman and his son remain hostages, U.S. and Mexican authorities said. (AP/LM Otero) |
The bold kidnapping of three U.S. and two Mexican citizens on a hunting ranch outside Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, is serving as an uncomfortable reminder for Americans of the perils of traveling across the border.
It is also raising questions about whether the ranch's owners, Librado Pina Jr., 49, and Librado Pina III, 25, were the victims of a random kidnapping or whether they were specifically targeted.
The whereabouts of Pina Jr., a licensed customs broker who owns a Corona beer distributorship in Laredo, his son and a Mexican citizen who worked as the ranch cook remained a mystery Thursday.
Two other kidnap victims David Mueller, 45, of Roscoe, and Fidel Rodriguez Cerdan of Monterrey, Mexico, were released early Wednesday on the outskirts of Monterrey.
The two men were dropped off several blocks from a store, and the kidnappers stuffed about $200 into Mueller's pocket to help him get home.
'They told them they weren't the guys they were looking for,' said David Mueller's brother, Steve Mueller. 'They told them they weren't the guys they had dealings with.'
FBI spokesman Erik Vasys declined to comment on any possible motive for the abductions.
But for once, investigators have some leads, Vasys said.
'Normally, no one knows anything happened until [victims] don't return home for dinner or [relatives] get a call from someone saying they want money,' Vasys said.
Mexican newspapers, quoting state officials in Coahuila, have speculated that the kidnappers were so-called Zetas, ex-Mexican military officials who defected to the drug mafias.
Lt. Col. Aurelio Macias, director of the state ministerial police, said he was aware of the speculation but did not know of any links between the Pinas' ranch and drug trafficking.
'We have no indication at this point that there were any irregular activities going on at that ranch,' he said. 'It might be there was some debt owed by the ranch owner, because they took almost everything from the ranch. They took vehicles and furniture. They even took some baby deer, little Bambis. They took paintings; they took everything they could see.'
Macias said there has been no communication from the kidnappers or the three who were abducted. He said authorities believe that the kidnappers came from neighboring Tamaulipas state.
Meanwhile, Macias said that despite heightened police patrols after the kidnapping, authorities expect the news to put a big damper on the lucrative Coahuila hunting industry.
'A lot of people won't come now,' he said. 'They'll just hunt on the other side.'
Since 2004, at least 60 kidnappings of U.S. citizens have taken place in Mexico, most in the Nuevo Laredo area. More than 20 remain unsolved, Vasys said.
The business climate in Nuevo Laredo had improved in recent months, said Jack Suneson, owner of the high-end Marti's jewelry and craft store.
Suneson believes that Nuevo Laredo's last hope may be incoming Mexican President Felipe Calderon, who is scheduled to be inaugurated today.
But Calderon will take over a fiercely divided country with much of Mexico refusing to accept his presidency. 'We've heard Nuevo Laredo will be Calderon's No. 1 priority, and it needs to be,' Suneson said. 'They know who these thugs are, but for whatever reason they aren't going out and arresting these guys.' |
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