Texas authorities are warning the public not to travel to Mexico following recent high-profile incidents involving Americans, ABC News reports.
On Friday, the Texas Department of Public Safety issued a travel advisory recommending that residents not venture south of the border for spring break or other vacations.
“Drug cartel violence and other criminal activity represent a significant safety threat to anyone who crosses into Mexico right now,” Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw said in a statement.
“We have a duty to inform the public about safety, travel risks and threats. Based on the volatile nature of cartel activity and the violence we are seeing there, we are urging individuals to avoid travel to Mexico at this time.”
The warning comes as news broke Saturday that three women from Texas vanished two weeks ago after entering Mexico to sell clothing at a flea market, in addition to last week’s kidnapping of four Americans, two of whom were found dead.
The three missing women were identified as 47-year-old Maritza Trinidad Perez Rios and 48-year-old Marina Perez Rios, who are sisters, and their friend 53-year-old Dora Alicia Cervantes Saenz, according to The Associated Press.
The trio reportedly vanished on February 24 in the city of Montemorelos and are among more than 500 U.S. residents known to be missing in Mexico, The Washington Post reports.
In a Facebook post, the sisters’ cousin Ludy Arredondo said authorities have not shared any information with the family and asked the public to pray for the women.
“My cousins and their friend are women, workers, responsible, mothers of their children, noble, simple women, they are WOMEN WHO WENT TO WORK,” Arredondo wrote.
The four Americans who were kidnapped are believed to have been caught in a shootout between two drug cartels in the city of Matamoros.
On Saturday, Texas Department of Public Safety Lieutenant Chris Olivarez urged spring breakers to take the recent incidents and warnings seriously.
“Our department is urging anyone traveling to Mexico, especially spring breakers, to avoid those areas, because right now it is too dangerous with the increase in violence and kidnappings in Mexico,” Olivarez told Fox News. “I can’t express enough to those thinking about traveling to Mexico, especially to spring breakers . . . to avoid those areas as much as possible.”
The U.S. State Department also has an active travel advisory for Mexico.
For the latest true crime and justice news, subscribe to the ‘Crime Stories with Nancy Grace’ podcast.
[Featured image: Mexican army soldier guards the Tamaulipas State Prosecutor´s headquarters in Matamoros, Mexico, Wednesday, March 8, 2023. A road trip to Mexico for cosmetic surgery veered violently off course when four Americans were caught in a drug cartel shootout, leaving two dead and two held captive for days in a remote region of the Gulf coast before they were rescued from a wood shack, officials said Tuesday. (AP Photo)]
