Sept. 6, 2007, 5:58PM
Families of Americans lost in Mexico left with questions
Fates of 50 missing victims — some taken for mysterious reasons — are unknown

By JAMES PINKERTON
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

Americans missing in Mexico

McALLEN — It was a routine day for labor attorney Mario Perera Riveroll, defending American companies in a civil court across the Rio Grande in a Mexican bordertown.

During a break in court hearings in downtown Reynosa on June 27, 2006, Perera told colleagues he would return after copying documents in the case.

Perera, a naturalized U.S. citizen, climbed into his red 2005 Mustang, then drove off — and disappeared.

Neither the lawyer nor his car have been seen since. And during the 14 months since his disappearance, Perera's family has endured a disheartening silence: No calls or letters from him. No demands for ransom. No sightings by police.

Perera, 44, is one of 50 U.S. citizens who have disappeared and are still missing in Mexico, including 33 who vanished in Mexican towns along the Texas border, according to FBI officials. Some of these cases date to 2004.

The unresolved fate of these Americans has brought heartbreak, anguish and misery to their relatives, as well as frustration to U.S. law enforcement authorities who have no jurisdiction to investigate the missing in Mexico.

The cases are a mix of abductions related to the drug trade along the border, kidnappings for ransom, abductions to settle personal disputes as well as cases of mistaken identity, U.S. officials said. In some cases, the motives are unknown.

In Perera's disappearance, FBI officials said there were no indications linking the civil attorney to drug trafficking or other criminal enterprises.

"He just vanished into thin air. There has been nothing — no calls, not even rumors," said Ana Laura Perera, a McAllen resident and one of the lawyer's three sisters. "It's like it never happened. It's horrible, horrible."

William C. Slemaker, whose 27-year-old stepdaughter, Yvette J. Martinez, and a girlfriend disappeared in Nuevo Laredo in September 2004, advocates mounting a U.S. trade embargo until Mexico provides information on the missing.

"If we at least threaten them with a trade embargo, we would have answers — Mexico would react," said Slemaker, who founded Americans Missing in Mexico last year. "They would find out what happened to the missing Americans."

Slemaker said there are actually 31 U.S. citizens missing in Nuevo Laredo alone, more than the FBI's tally, explaining the victim's families are afraid to report the abductions.

No results yet
In violence-torn Nuevo Laredo, 71 U.S. citizens have been reported kidnapped since mid-2004. Forty-two were returned alive, two are dead and 27 remain missing, according to the FBI.

FBI officials say they've met with Mexican authorities to resolve the case of Perera and other missing Americans and have been told additional investigators have been assigned in Mexico. But so far, there have been no results.

"Those are disturbing cases where there's no ransom demand, no proof of life to work with," said FBI supervisor J.L. Cisneros in McAllen, who has met with Mexican law officials.

"The FBI has had numerous successes in the recovery of U.S. citizens who have been the victims of kidnapping," Cisneros added. "Thus far in 2007, nine victims have been successfully recovered with the assistance of Mexican authorities."

In Laredo, acting Mexican Consul Javier Abud Osuna said, "From the beginning, the Mexican government took this issue as a very important one."

Abud said the the fate of the missing Americans has been the responsibility of state prosecutors, but in recent weeks an international task force of U.S. and Mexican federal law officials has been formed to concentrate on the issue.

One high-ranking U.S. law enforcement official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said many of those missing were involved with Mexican drug cartels fighting for control of border trade routes. But some of the missing, he noted, were abducted because one cartel suspected they were helping a rival trafficking gang or had other disputes.

"We think they are all, to a certain extent, organized crime-related, but not all are drug-related," the veteran agent explained. "A criminal organization may stoop to a crime other than drug trafficking — we know they're involved in alien smuggling. And there have been kidnappings for ransom, and there's the category of the unknown, where we don't know why this person is missing."

Little hope of being solved

Whatever the reason for the disappearances, several U.S. experts who study Mexico's legal system say there is little reason to believe the cases ever will be resolved.

Border expert Tony Payan, a professor of political science at the University of Texas at El Paso, said Mexican police are "extremely incompetent," poorly trained and lack sufficient forensic equipment or laboratories to conduct complex investigations.

"The likelihood that the police will solve these cases is very, very low," Payan said.

In Reynosa, the state police commander in charge of homicides said his officers have not been able to find Perera, his car or anyone to substantiate reports he was abducted a few blocks from the courthouse by a group of armed men.

"There was a version that he was seen being picked up, but no one has confirmed that," said Commander Fernando Miranda Guerrero. "There was a lot of speculation that an armed group picked him up, or he went with them."

Miranda said local police are still searching for Perera, and they examine unidentified bodies found floating in the Rio Grande, and elsewhere, to see if they match the lawyer's description.

That case is similar in some respects to the Aug. 24, 2006, abduction of longtime Laredo resident Sergio Lopez, a 42-year-old businessman who is among the missing 50 U.S. citizens.

A store employee told authorities he witnessed a group of uniformed, armed men capture the businessman as he opened his family's money exchange house across the Rio Grande in Nuevo Laredo. Lopez's older brother was abducted from the business the evening before.

Both men remain missing, and their families have not been contacted for ransom.

Work of Gulf Cartel?
U.S. authorities believe the Lopez brothers were taken by members of the Gulf Cartel, the powerful drug trafficking gang that has assembled a private army of Mexican military defectors to do their killing and debt collecting.

FBI agents in Laredo confirmed they have discussed the case with Mexican authorities in Nuevo Laredo.

"I don't have a lot a faith in them, or their system," Carmen Lopez, a Laredo school district administrator and wife of Sergio Lopez, said of Mexican officials. "I never hear from them unless I call them."

Norman Townsend, an FBI supervisory agent in Laredo, said the Lopez abduction remains under investigation, but scant evidence has been uncovered.

"In this case, all the events and activities occurred in Mexico," Townsend said. "It's really a situation where our legal jurisdiction is to provide assistance to Mexican officials, because in this case there were no extortion or kidnapping demands made, or laws violated, in the United States."

For now, the lives of Carmen Lopez and the couple's three young children remain in limbo.

Her 10-year-old daughter still leaves a message on one of her father's cell phones. Sergio Lopez played varsity football in Laredo, and his two sons are continuing his legacy by playing football for Laredo schools. Carmen Lopez said his absence is felt at the games.

"We need answers, we need to know my husband's whereabouts, regardless of where it would put us," she said.

And in McAllen, the wife of missing labor attorney Perera is raising three small sons without their father. Her husband left little money behind, and she works as a clerk in a medical clinic to provide for the couple's children.

"I hope he appears — for my sake and for my sons," said Aida Perera. "But God will decide."

james.pinkerton@chron.com

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