Search continues in the Tamaulipas disappearance of 3 Americans

Borderland Beat posted by  Computer JA

INVESTIGATION

The FBI opened an investigation for the disappearance of three U.S. citizens (all of them related) who were allegedly kidnapped in Control Ramírez, a rural community in the municipality of Matamoros, Tamaulipas.

Police in Progreso, Texas issued a formal complaint for the disappearance of Alex Alvarado Rivera (22), Erica Alvarado Rivera (26) and José Ángel Alvarado Rivera (21), three residents of that city, who were reportedly kidnapped from a restaurant by gunmen in uniforms of federal agents in the Control Ramírez at around 8PM on October 14, 2014.

The complaint was received by the Police Department under case number 14-10-577 by the officer Javier A. Sosa, who documented the identity of the two young men and a woman, and confirmed that they are residents of Progreso, Texas and had US citizenship.

POLICE ADBUCTION?

According to officials, all three of the brothers had plans to visit his father in Mexico, but they never reached their destination. Erica and her boyfriend crossed the international border from Progreso, Texas on October 13. The next day Erica and her boyfriend went to a taco stand to meet with her brothers. However, while she was there, she was reportedly beaten by a group of men who claimed to be from the police.

"They were beating her like she was a man and that is when my sons arrived in a Cherokee and tried to stop it and they also took them," Raquel Alvarado, mother of three Americans disappeared, said. Then they were supposedly taken in two vans.

She claimed that the group of men were part of the elite police force in Matamoros known as "Hércules". This police force was created by Leticia "Lety" Salazar, the mayor of Matamoros.

CARS LOCATED

Mrs. Raquel Alvarado, mother of the missing brothers, recounted her dramatic search, and said that authorities have no clues on the whereabouts of her children.

''I'm desperate and afraid for their lives. I was calling my daughter all Monday and lost all communication in the afternoon when she ran out of signal. Since then I haven't heard from her or know anything,'' she said.

A week after the disappearance of his three sons, Mrs. Alvarado remains in the quest to locate their children in Matamoros. She stated that the vehicle in which they traveling in was found in a customs agency known as "Apha", located on the street División del Norte in Matamoros. One of the vehicles was missing its license plates, and the car dealership owner did not comment how the vehicles got there.

According to the investigation, the brothers were using two vehicles: a black Grand Cherokee 2011 and sand-colored GMC Yukon. They admitted that it was possible that they were indeed arrested by federal agents. This information, however, has not been confirmed.

NOTE FROM CHIVIS :  After becoming close to Ann Devert, and Ann Stacy, the mother of Harry Devert, and sister of James Stacy,(at left) I became familiar with the inter-workings in  the aftermath of kidnappings in Mexico.  I can say that all agencies of the United States have a remote role in the investigation.  Unless Mexico requests their assistance in some capacity, they have a non-functionary role.  They can place some measure of pressure on the government, but unless the family of missing persons takes a hands on role in the investigation, being present in Mexico and hounding Mexican authorities, little to nothing will occur.  All talk, often not based on truth.

I advised that Ann Devert, (with Harry above) who is fluent in Spanish, to go travel to Mexico and plaster posters and ads in the region.  She did so in such a tenacious manner that Harry's kidnappers gave up the body to make her go away. 

 In the Stacy case.  James Stacy disappeared in Tamaulipas.  He and Harry disappeared at the end of January.  James mother health was failing, the direct result of her grief. 

Tamaulipas is always dangerous but during those first months after the kidnapping,  there was an uptick in violence.  When Ann advised that her mother wanted to go to Tamaulipas, -James mother's  primary language is not English and speaks no Spanish-  I advised she should not  go.  I felt there would be nothing to gain without knowing the language, and Ann was very concerned about her mothers deteriorating health. 

She did not go.  And a few days after Harry's body was positively identified, the Stacy family informed me that they had decided to end their search, which included private investigators. 

 If it were my family member taken.  I would stay in Mexico.  I would take out full page ads, I would offer a reward, I would beg for interviews, I would plaster my child's face everywhere, billboards, posters whatever.  I would be the squeaky wheel.  And I would take a DNA profile of myself....in case.  Chances are almost nil that if a ransom was not asked for, almost immediately,  one would see their kidnapped loved one again.  It has happened.  But rarely.  Even having a body to bury is a remote possibility.  I never thought Ann Devert would have a body to bury.  Yet she did. 

Harry was cremated and had three memorials, one in Mexico City, one in New York and the last in France, where his ashes where scattered.

Written from these sources:  Milenio and El Manana