Northern Arizona UniversityPhoto of Veronica Perez Rodriguez.
Fox News/NewsCore
Armed men kidnapped an American university professor while she was visiting her mother in the violent Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez, the state prosecutor's office said Saturday.
The American was identified as Veronica Perez Rodriguez, an archeologist at Northern Arizona University.
A source at the Chihuahua state prosecutor's office said she was visiting her mother in Ciudad Juarez Friday afternoon "and the moment she left her family's house she was intercepted by armed men and deprived of her liberty."
Since 2003, Perez has been an associate professor of anthropology at the university in Flagstaff, Arizona.
Perez attended elementary, junior high, and high school in Ciudad Juarez, according to her resume, posted on the university's website. She is fluent in Spanish and English.
Perez, on her Northern Arizona University web page, describes herself as an ecological and environmental anthropologist and archeologist.
"My primary focus is the study of social complexity, urbanism, and its environmental impact in the Mixteca Alta region of Oaxaca, Mexico," she wrote.
She earned two degrees from the University of Texas at El Paso and a doctorate in 2003 from the University of Georgia, according to her resume.
At least 39 U.S. citizens were killed in 2010 in Ciudad Juarez, which has 1.3 million people. It is Mexico's most violent city, according to a report by state prosecutors.
UPDATE: (thanks for the link sent in as an anonymous BB comment)
by Alex Hinojosa and Adriana Gómez Licón \ El Paso Times
The woman kidnapped in Juárez Friday is safe with family members, officials said.
Officials identified the victim as Veronica Perez Rodriguez, 34, an anthropology professor at Northern Arizona University. She was kidnapped in the Fuentes del Valle neighborhood along Manuel Gomez Avenue.
"Our law enforcement officers in Flagstaff have been working with the FBI and have reported that she is safe with her family in Juarez," Tom Bauer, spokesman at Northern Arizona University. "As far as we know, she's been emailing her colleagues."
Rodriguez was returned to her family on Saturday after an express kidnapping Friday morning, officials said.
An express kidnapping is a method of abduction in which the victim is forced to withdraw money from his or her account or the family is asked to pay a small ransom for the victim's return.
Need more details, if it was 'professional', heavily armed commando's in a convoy, or a sloppy third rate amateur kidnapping. Hard to imagine why La Linea or LGN would want to kidnap this woman though.
ReplyDeleteThis could be the last straw! the U.S. needs to flood Mexico with military force and crush these mother fuckers... I will volunteer, if they harm this women I hope that the U.S. invades Mexico and kills every last narco! Fucking scum of the eart dirty rotten coward cock sucking putos!
ReplyDeletegosh, if i was in the United States earning an income I sure would not leave my mother in juarez.
ReplyDeleteHow foolish to apprehend an outstanding woman who came from that town and did something good with her life, yes we need to bring her back safe at all cost, it's time to send DEA, ATF and ICE agents in armed with gunships, save the good citizens of Mexico and bring it back to the people.
ReplyDeleteWOW! That's a silly comment!
ReplyDelete'Anonymous 5:40pm said... gosh, if i was in the United States earning an income I sure would not leave my mother in juarez.'
I'm sure that her mom wanted to stay in her hometown, cartels or not. There most probably was absolutely no way to convince her family members to leave Juarez and the fact that mom stayed is not the professor's fault.
Not everybody in Mexico wants to go flying off to the US...
This will not end well. No matter if she was targeted or she was a random victim, it's a high profile crime now. She'll most likely be killed and everyone will be blaming each other for the crime.
ReplyDeleteIt'll be like the ICE agent's murder, when all the different groups were racing each other to put up banners denying their involvement.
Thank god shes safe. Sounds like the best possible outcome that couldve came of it
ReplyDelete"Express Kidnapping"? Only in Mexico... I wish that the U.S. would send in the military and show the cartels some "Express Justice"...
ReplyDeleteYeah I agree with 7:04 pm. I can't wait for the day when the U.S. goes into Mexico and does a lil' "Express Ass Whoopin!"
ReplyDeleteSo what are you ardent/ernest? The silly comment police?
ReplyDeleteYou are "sure"her mom wanted to stay in Juarez? Oh yeah? Do you know her? Have you talked to her? "There most probably was absolutely no way..."
Now that's a silly comment - "most probably...absolutely"
Not everybody in Mexico wants to go to the US? Really, how did you figure that out? 107 million people and some of them want to stay home. Got any more golden tidbits for us?
I think we should be happy the nice professor survived the assault.
For those that want the US to go in to clean up this mess..... IMO it would most likely be like another Afghanistan (corruption at all levels, money, drugs, weapons coming in from terrorist groups, etc.).
ReplyDeleteI think we could do A LOT if we get serious on the US side. Lock up all of the gang members, and other distributors operating here (OMG the ACLU would have a heart attack! too bad). Follow ALL money transactions going to Mexico. SECURE the border so nothing goes down, and nothing comes up without inspection including commercial transports. Yeah it would slow the rate of trade, but so what. Put all of our military folks that return from overseas or retired and are unemployed to work HERE, and pay them well. Use spec ops to do undercover and covert "missions" here and take them out.
If we don't allow this to continue on our side, maybe the cartels' income will dry up and take their business elsewhere. Once Mexico is cleaned up and safe, perhaps more companies will want to invest in Mexico and provide jobs. BUT, Mexico has A LOT of work to do before that will happen.
She is one very lucky lady.
ReplyDeleteShe needs to get out NOW and bring her mom with her.
You are B-R-O-K-E.
ReplyDeletekeep posting the Invade now Semper-WIFI
Couch Comandoes.
cracks me up.
you will waste onother 3 trillion to invade a Democratic country over what criminals do.
thank god your credit card is maxed out.
@9:23
ReplyDeleteWow, you actually have people on this site who are willing to put themselves in harms way to help because they are outraged by these stories... and all you can come up with is negativity? That's sad.
Muthers don't always do as you would have them do, Anonymous. Go figure? Some will even stay in Ciudad Juarez when it's not all that safe!
ReplyDeleteHere is some more information on this case from today's ElPaso Times:
ReplyDeleteFriends and colleagues suspect she went to Juárez to visit her family.
"She would go there often," said Joshua Edwards, an archaeology professor at Northern Arizona University. "She would visit her mom, dad and sister."
According to her biography on the university's website, Rodríguez graduated from high
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school in 1993 with a diploma from Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey.
After receiving her diploma, she attended the University of Texas at El Paso, where she graduated with a bachelor's in anthropology in 1997. In 1999, she received a bachelor's in linguistics at UTEP.
She received her doctorate in ecological and environmental anthropology at the University of Georgia in Athens.
Rodríguez began teaching at Northern Arizona in 2003 as an assistant professor in anthropology.
Her most recent project was the "Investigations at Cerro Jazmin: a study of urbanism and terraced landscape of the Mixteca Alta, Oaxaca." The projected was funded by the National Science Foundation.
"She is a very driven and strong person," Edwards said. "I'm in shock that this would happen to her.
"I just had lunch with her a couple of weeks ago."
Chihuahua state officials and U.S. Consulate officials in Juárez would not disclose her citizenship, stating that kidnappers might assume that she is wealthy if she is known to be from the United States.
But Northern Arizona University officials said she lives in Flagstaff.
"We've heard conflicting reports that she is an American citizen and others that say she is a Mexican citizen," Bauer said. "What we do know is that she is safe and that is the most important thing right now."
It is a fact that most citizens want out, and many have left, those that had the funds to do so. And MANY through the graces of family in US. By Juarez'math 20% have left the city, by global match more like 25-30% with neighborhoods left as ghost towns. I did not mean get out to the US side, just in a safer area even close by just out of Juarez, as citizens have, rendering Juarez a ghost town in many areas. Those who are left are not necessarily by choice, but financial circumstance. I appreciate mother may have chose to stay. But if a daughter says she is freighten to visit because of potential harm, that usually would effect a mother.
ReplyDeleteit is not the fault of the family and there are few details, but fault or not, this poor mother will live her life in grief thinking she was in some way at fault. Thats how mothers are.
@ J
ReplyDeletegood call...
Glad to know she's okay. We need to thank the Lord too. I've got relatives that live in Mexico and all we can do is pray for them everyday. My family here in the US will not even dare to step into Mexico. You just never know what will happen. I love my relatives out there and they are good innocent people but, we stay out of Mexico. May God be with them too.
ReplyDeleteOk so lets imagine that the US went in tomorrow with gunships and wiped out every narco, from el chapo to the halcones. what would that do? The very next day a thousand people would take their place. Your still left with Mexico, and a crappy government thats willing to be corrupted. New cartels would form instantly. Without a complete redesign of the infrastructure, nothing would change.
ReplyDeleteThis event highlights just how dangerous it can be for those who have families that straddle The Border. Neighbors know who have the relatives living on the US side and see and hear when they come. This made for a dangerous situation for this family.
ReplyDeleteMy family also is in this situation. Mother-in-Law lives in a danger zone and never in a zillion years will end her last years by moving away from what is, after all, her home. Her daughter- My wife likes to go and visit with her. Relatives and neighbors are aware of this. Word gets out.
See, Anonymous 5:40pm/ 7:56pm, it has nothing to do with a daughter being supposedly negligent at all. It is simply a dangerous situation where some are more vulnerable to exploitation than others. Veronica Perez unfortunately got caught just going home to visit her mother, who I am sure that she loves.
I am glad that she finally got home once again safe from her kidnappers, but with now, considerably less cash.
dang erny..you said something nice for once..that jack herrer is pretty potent mez huh?
ReplyDelete