They planned a fun trip to Mexico that ended in tragedy

ap

Newspaper La Jornada
Sunday March 12, 2023, p. 4

It was supposed to be a fun trip to Mexico for four Americans, friends since childhood: a post-pandemic adventure, but soon after crossing the border the horror began and two of them did not return home.

One wanted cosmetic surgery after having six children. Another was celebrating her 34th birthday.They rented a white van in South Carolina and set off on the nearly 22-hour journey, shooting goofy videos and driving non-stop to Brownsville, in the southern tip of Texas.

Good morning, United States.Eric Williams expressed to the camera in the early morning after traveling all night. Mexico, here we come.

But as soon as they arrived in Mexico, the horror began. Two members of the group did not return home, victims of the bloody Gulf cartel, a gang of drug traffickers linked to murders and kidnappings in the violent border city of Matamoros, Tamaulipas, a town of half a million people that has long been a stronghold of organized crime.

They could hardly have picked a worse Mexican border town than this for what was supposed to be a fun adventure.

It all started when Latavia McGee booked a cosmetic surgery appointment with a doctor she had seen before, in 2001. Advertising for Dr. Roberto Chávez Medina on Facebook and TikTok attracts many American women.

It is a frequent story, of people who leave the United States in search of medical treatment, which in Mexico costs up to 50 percent less.

McGee had his turn a few days after Shaeed Woodard’s birthday. Zindell Brown and Cheryl Orange completed the group of five. Almost all of them had grown up together in Lake City, South Carolina, a town of less than 6,000 people.

On the US side of the border, they rented rooms in a motel along the highway that runs through Brownsville.

Early Friday morning they went to the international bridge with the intention of going to the doctor directly on the other side. Orange stayed at the motel in Brownsville because he had forgotten the ID needed to cross the border.

They went to leave her and had to return in 15 minutesOrange said. But the clinic had moved to another location, several blocks away. It is not clear what happened next. Maybe they got lost. The US State Department advises against traveling to Tamaulipas due to violent crime and kidnapping, but maybe your friends didn’t know that. Williams’ mother commented that her son had never left the country.

A few kilometers from the border, around noon, a vehicle collided with the group’s van. Several men wearing bulletproof vests and carrying assault rifles arrived in a pickup truck and surrounded them, according to Mexican police reports.

Brown and Woodard, hit by bullets, apparently died instantly. Williams was wounded in the leg. Videos posted on social media show men forcing McGee into a van, then returning to drag a wounded Williams and the bodies of his friends into the van. Meanwhile, the people in the stopped cars maintained complete silence. A witness said they were trying not to attract the attention of the gunmen.

The attacker’s vehicle drove away. The Mexican Areli Pablo Servando, 33, died lying in the street by a stray bullet.

Mexican authorities found at the scene the social security credentials and credit cards of the group of friends inside the van, which showed a bullet in the driver’s window. The US consulate, a few blocks away, warned its employees to avoid the area because of a fatal shooting downtown.

The doctor at the clinic later told investigators that she found it strange that her patient did not show up for the surgery, which can cost up to $3,000, but that her office had only communicated with her electronically. The clinic was about a four-minute drive from the crash site.

scary days

For the survivors, the road incident was the beginning of the most terrifying days of their lives. The cartel members took them from one place to another around the city, stopping at a medical clinic.

A doctor told investigators that two men with assault rifles burst through a back door and threatened to kill them if they did not treat an injured person. The gang members and their hostages remained for three hours in the clinic and left, according to investigative documents to which Ap had access.

At the motel across the border, Orange was worried, unaware of what had happened. On Saturday morning she spoke with a Brownsville police officer. An hour later, local police turned the case over to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

On Sunday, the FBI reported the disappearances and offered $50,000 for the release of the hostages and the arrest of the kidnappers. US Ambassador Ken Salazar stated that his country’s authorities directly asked President Andrés Manuel López to help them locate the disappeared.

unbearable wait

In the United States, family and friends watched the video of his gruesome capture and could only pray. The waiting and the silence became unbearable. I just want them to come homeZalandria Brown, Zindell’s older sister, said Monday night. Dead or alive, bring them home.

The next day, after the anguish of not knowing anything, was followed by the pain of the news. An anonymous whistleblower said he had seen armed men and blindfolded people in a shack with orange walls and a corrugated metal roof in a small rural town called ejido Tecolote, on the outskirts of Matamoros. A white pickup truck matched the one he had taken from the Americans on March 3.

The shack was near Bagdad Beach, a remote stretch of sand where the Rio Grande empties into the Gulf of Mexico and has been known since the US Civil War as a drop-off point for northbound contraband.

After the complaint, the Mexican authorities were traveling along dirt roads when they heard a cry of Help! (Help!) So they reached the shack where they found McGee and Williams blindfolded. Next to them were the bodies of their friends, wrapped in blankets and plastic bags, according to Mexican documents.

A 24-year-old man in a bulletproof vest who was watching them ran out but was quickly apprehended. The two Americans were immediately transported to a hospital in Brownsville.

Robert Williams, Eric’s brother, said he couldn’t wait to tell him how happy i am that he survived and that i love him. Her 11-year-old son was jubilant.

On Thursday, as the bodies were being transported to the United States in hearses, there was a clamor for action against the Gulf cartel until it was crushed. the fraction scorpions of the cartel apologized and handed over what he claimed were the five responsible for the kidnapping of innocent Americans.

Orange said in a voicemail to an AP journalist that she and her surviving friends are not yet ready to talk about their ill-fated journey. We just want to start to recover.