New Focus by U.S. on Marine Kidnapped in Tamaulipas

Borderland Beat

The kidnapping of a U.S. Marine corporal and Iraq War veteran has received scant attention since he was taken from a Mexican ranch with his father and uncle two month ago.

But that may be about to change.

U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Miami, who led the way in freeing jailed U.S. Marine Jon Hammar, held on bogus gun charges in Mexico, told Fox News Latino she plans to step up political pressure to make sure Armando Torres III's case is solved quickly.

“Right now our plan of action is that next week we're going to take to the House floor,” said Ros-Lehtinen. “So we're going to step it up a notch. We tried the quiet way, and now we're going to raise the profile of this case.”

Meanwhile, the FBI has told the family to prepare for the worst. It is widely believed Torres and members of his family were taken by drug cartel members.

“There's not a day that goes by that I don't think about my brother, and he's always on my mind,” Cristina Torres, Armando’s sister, told Fox News Latino. “I wouldn't wish it on anyone else. It's very hard. I just want my brother back.”

Torres, 24, is the backbone of her family, she said. His mother has an alter with old photos and lit candles in the home to remind her not to give up searching for her son -- though the family fights off the grim reality that he may be dead.

Corporal Torres, a 25-year-old Marine in the Individual Ready Reserve and a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2009, crossed the border into Mexico on May 14th near Progresso, Texas to visit his father’s ranch in La Barranca, Mexico. On that day, eyewitnesses told the Torres family several men stormed into the home and forced Torres, his father, Armando Torres II, and his uncle, Salvador Torres, into a white truck.

On June 11, twelve Congressional representatives wrote a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry demanding help. Both Mexico’s President Enrique Pena Nieto, and President Barack Obama have been briefed on the case. In fact, 165 Central American kidnapped migrants were freed in Tamaulipas state as a direct result of Mexican police action associated with the search of the three missing family members.

The Torres family believes Corporal Torres just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time – stuck in the middle of a land dispute over the ranch. Mexican cartels are known for land grabs along the border and use the area to grow drugs and smuggle them across the border.

“In that area, in Tamaulipus, we've seen a mafia war going on between two very violent cartels, the Zetas and the Gulf Cartel. These used to be groups that were aligned with each other,” Andrew Selee, vice president for programs at the Woodrow Wilson Center, told Fox News Latino. “The Zetas were the hitmen for the gulf cartel and the two groups split a couple of years ago, they've been fighting for control for the smuggling routes of Tamaulipus, and it's a very violent conflict.”

Selee said the chances that Torres is still alive are not good but there is always the possibility that those who kidnapped him may realize he’s a U.S. marine and they’ve made a mistake. After all, he said, kidnapping decisions, “are often made by low-level operatives in one of the mafia groups.”

Torres is a father of two boys and served as a mechanic in Iraq working on humvees for more than 14 hours a day, fellow marines said. Messages of support from the U.S. Marines community through a Facebook group called “Get Our Brother Back” have provided the family hope and strength over the last two months.

“I don't think I'm going to stop looking till, until I find something, at least until we recover a body or something,” Cristina Torres said of her brother. “But until then, my brother is still alive.”

Marines Rally Around The Missing Marine
The Marines are mobilizing.

Marines and their families from across the United States are mounting political pressure and rallying for the release of fellow Marine reservist, Texan Armando Torres, who was kidnapped in a Mexican border city three weeks ago.

The FBI announced this week it was looking for information about the May 14th disappearance of the 25-year-old Iraq War veteran, who is from the border city of Hidalgo, Texas. ...continues on following page
Torres’ father and uncle also disappeared from the ranch in Mexico, not far from the U.S. border. All three were apparently ambushed by a group of men who forced them inside a truck and then took off.

Before Torres' kidnapping hit the mainstream media, the Torres family reached out to fellow Marines through a Facebook group called "Get Our Brother Back."

For the past three weeks, Marines who had served with Torres have written numerous emails to lawmakers, started a White House petition and have contacted dozens of media outlets in an effort to get their “brother” back.

"I read a lot of the posts to my mother," Armando's sister, Cristina Torres, 24, told Fox News Latino. "Just seeing the support from military families, it’s just giving my mom more hope."

Posts on the group have ranged from prayers to people promising to contact their local lawmakers for help. It also has become a sounding board for Marines all over the country hoping for Torres’ safe return.

"I'm a Marine, and what do I need to do to help the situation?" Darren Pelton posted.

"I live in a military town...we are a military family...I will spread the word," Michele Reckel wrote.

Rhett Summerlot, 27, started the Facebook group, which by Tuesday already had 5,000 followers. Summerlot served with Torres in Iraq in 2009 and described him as someone who always has a smile on his face.

"We are a brotherhood, and this could have happened to somebody in a different union in another state, somebody would have done something like this to start the process to get him home,"  said Summerlot, who has sent out more than 100 emails and made dozens of phone calls to get the word out. 

Former New Mexico Gov Bill Richardson and Texas Congressman Ruben Hinojosa, a Democrat, have responded to emails and have pledged their help.

"I think they messed with the wrong people," Melissa Estrada, the mother of Armando's two sons, said of the Marine brotherhood. "It's such a beautiful thing, the bond is so strong."

Fox Latino