The Guanajuato government sent 2 helicopters to locate the missing tourists
Confusion and confusion in central Mexico following the disappearance of 23 people this Tuesday while traveling from Guanajuato to Coahuila in two trucks. The group disappeared north of San Luis Potosí, according to the company that rented them the vehicles. In interviews with various media, those responsible have stated that the person with whom they arranged the rent called them to tell them that they had been kidnapped and that they were demanding payment for their release. On Wednesday, San Luis Potosí prosecutors reported the rescue of 16 people in the area where the 23 had been reported missing, noting they were part of the same group. The unit later reported that the events were separate.
The disappearance of the 23 occurs in an area north of San Luis Potosí that has long had no history of violence or insecurity. It has appeared on crime maps in the past, particularly in the final years of Felipe Calderón’s six-year tenure (2006-2012), amid the army’s offensive against criminal groups and due to the battle between the two existing criminal networks in the area then the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas. But what is happening now is surprising, first because of the place where it happened and then because of the media absence of his loved ones, who so far have not made any noise to find their own.
In an interview with Reforma newspaper, company boss Adrián González said the group left San Felipe, Guanajuato, around 10:00 p.m. Monday. At 4:00 a.m. Tuesday, the man noticed via GPS that the two trucks, driven by company drivers, stopped near Matehuala in San Luis Potosí. In the hours that followed, he and his brother received calls from one of the 23, the person in charge of hiring the transport. He told them that they had been kidnapped and that they wanted 60,000 pesos each. They found so many calls strange – communication lasted until Wednesday – from someone who was allegedly kidnapped.
Be that as it may, González has denounced the facts before the Guanajuato Attorney’s Office. On Wednesday, the Secretary-General of the Government, Libia Dennise, took over the case. He posted a message on his Twitter account saying, “As of yesterday, we are in coordination with the San Luis Potosí authorities and will work closely together until we can locate them.” At the same time, the San Luis Attorney’s Office announced the rescued 16 people she found on a highway in Matehuala. Investigators made the connection and at least partially dismissed the case.
The situation changed as the hours went by as they realized in San Luis that one had nothing to do with the other. The 16 people who appeared on a highway in Matehuala were from the state of Mexico. They were traveling in similar vans, hence the confusion, and had been intercepted by a criminal group. They robbed her and left her there. But the 23, apparently all men, according to the newspaper AM from León in Guanajuato, have still not turned up.
At dawn, the Guanajuato Public Security Secretariat announced the dispatch of two helicopters to San Luis Potosí to assist in the search effort. The devices are equipped with infrared equipment to be able to recognize people in the dark. The 23-year-old’s disappearance comes in the middle of a vacation break in Mexico and has little repercussion.
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