Arrested in Tijuana and Never Seen Again
BAJA CALIFORNIA —
When Karla Izquierdo's ex-hubby, Francisco Aguilar, disappeared in Rosarito, she unwillingly joined a group no 1 wants to become a fellow member of: the tens of thousands of families searching across Mexico for their missing loved ones.
But the instance is a relative rarity, in one sense because Aguilar, a 20-yr veteran of the Los Angeles Burn down Department, is an American citizen.
Each yr, millions of Americans visit Mexico without incident. Still, 324 American citizens have vanished since 2006 and not been found, according to the Mexican federal government's official tally of the missing. That compares with more 70,000 missing Mexicans.
The Aguilar case highlights some of the frustrations Americans face when forced to confront the weakness of the Mexican criminal justice organisation, where even when criminals confess to violent crimes, they are oftentimes acquitted. Law enforcement officials in the U.s. say it can be frustrating for family members when they realize U.S. police have no jurisdiction in Mexico and accept to rely on their Mexican counterparts to investigate cases of missing Americans.
"People can be shocked to find out that the American law enforcement system doesn't be in Mexico," said Lt. Thomas Seiver, who is with the homicide unit of measurement of the San Diego Sheriff's Department.
Asked to annotate, an FBI spokesperson said in a statement, "While the FBI does not take jurisdiction on missing persons overseas, we are always ready to assist our international partners."
Aguilar was terminal heard from on Aug. twenty, when he sent his family a WhatsApp message from well-nigh his Rosarito embankment house, where he lived some of the time.
Weeks went by, Izquierdo claims, earlier investigators began taking the instance seriously and only after the case gained traction in the U.S. press and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti appear at a news conference that the city "would piece of work tirelessly" to ensure Aguilar's condom render.
"This is a living nightmare," said Izquierdo. She said it is peculiarly hard not knowing whether the father of her two children is live or dead. "Since this happened, nosotros've been meeting all these families in Mexico who have also been searching for their loved ones for years and take been left without answers."
The family unit of missing firefighter Francisco Aguilar distributed this flyer with contact information for anyone who may accept any data about his disappearance.
(Cortesía)
Though two people take been arrested for Aguilar'south "forced disappearance," his whereabouts remain unknown. "I believe that every single hr later on his disappearance was valuable ... A lot of time was wasted with people who did almost nothing," said Izquierdo this calendar week.
Baja California investigators dispute that, saying they worked the instance harder than most — not just because the missing party was an American, merely besides because there were immediate and obvious signs of foul play at Aguilar's residence, such every bit missing vehicles, an apartment left in disarray and claret at the scene.
"They investigated day and dark," said Enrique Méndez, a spokesman for the Chaser Full general's part in Baja California.
Two suspects were arrested on Oct. 8, in possession of Aguilar's stolen credit cards. A judge briefly released them from custody a few days subsequently. Baja California officials say the suspects — Santos "Due north," 27, and Fanny "N," 32 — are now back in custody, being held on suspicion of being involved in his "forced disappearance." (Defendants in Mexico are but identified by their get-go name unless they are convicted of a crime, in order to protect their civil rights.)
"Information technology is incredible how having the evidence, having the audios, looking at photographs, looking at how these criminal groups do very severe damage to order, but just because of technicalities, because of details of interpretations and personal criteria, (the judges) let them get costless," said Isaías Bertín, a top federal law enforcement official in Baja California.
Oscar Armenta, a quondam San Diego police sergeant who worked extensively in Mexico on SDPD's border liaison squad, says in his experience Baja California investigators are very talented, although they are often operating nether very difficult circumstances, including limited resource and dangerous working conditions.
"I tin personally tell you they're outstanding at investigations," said Armenta, who now works equally a private investigator, often on cases with a cross-border emphasis. "They're actually good at boots on the basis with the limited resources and the other challenges they face up."
U.Due south. law enforcement officials say Americans who don't become involved in criminal activity in Mexico are rarely targeted because their disappearances can bring unwanted attending south of the border.
Criminal groups "don't want the political backlash or the constabulary enforcement backfire," said Seiver. Armenta said it's "very rare that American tourists only walking downward the street in Baja California volition be but randomly kidnapped off the street."
The state Attorney General of Baja California showed these images of a couple detained on Oct. 8 on suspicion of their involvement in the disappearance of missing Los Angeles firefighter Francisco Aguilar.
(Alexandra Mendoza/U-T en Español)
"Ordinarily there's some reason or a connexion," he said. "The suspects that are going to kidnap you want to make sure y'all have something for them to take."
Notwithstanding, there have been several high-contour robberies and murders of American citizens in Baja California, this twelvemonth, such equally the murders in August of a well-known Solana Beach couple who had a vacation home most San Quintin, a small coastal town almost 3 hours south of the border most Ensenada. Ian Hirschsohn, 78, and Kathy Harvey, 73, surprised a robber in the house, investigators said. The robber later admitted to killing the couple and dumping their bodies in a well south of San Quintin, co-ordinate to Hiram Sanchez, the prosecutor.
When U.S. citizens become missing in United mexican states, relatives or other loved ones frequently first off looking for help north of the border.
San Diego expanse law enforcement agencies are required past country law to immediately take a study most a person's disappearance — no matter where the person lives or where they went missing. Merely police volition then forward the study to the agency that has jurisdiction over the missing person's case. If the person is believed to exist in Mexico, they typically work through their border liaison unit to alarm Mexican regime.
"We don't actively get looking for people in Mexico," said Chula Vista police Lt. Eric Thunberg.
Mexican local police force enforcement agencies usually do not have a example based only on paperwork from another bureau. Family unit members accept to physically go to the jurisdiction where their loved one is missing to make a report in person in Mexico.
"We tell people all the time: If you remember your loved one is in Mexico, become to Mexico," explained Seiver. His unit of measurement, the Sheriff department'southward homicide division, typically investigates missing-persons cases that are more than 30 days old.
Cases involving Americans missing in Mexico can draw extensive media attention, but their numbers are relatively low. The San Diego Constabulary Department currently has 10 open missing-persons cases where detectives believe the person may exist in Mexico. Since 2013, the Chula Vista Police Department has documented 7 unsolved cases where the missing person is believed to be in Mexico.
The San Diego Sheriff'southward Department doesn't publicly share its numbers of missing persons believed to be in Mexico for investigative reasons, but a homicide lieutenant said those numbers are as well comparatively modest.
In at least some of those cases, the missing party does not want to be establish, police said.
"You're talking about a grown person, and so you know, the first question is ever: Are they actually missing or are they partying?" said Armenta.
But the culling can be grim. In some years, more Americans are murdered in Mexico than in all other foreign countries combined. Travel to several Mexican states is listed as more dangerous than traveling to Syria or Afghanistan by the U.S. State Section.
Though Baja California is considered less dangerous than many Mexican states, more than a dozen Americans are killed in that location each year. (This twelvemonth, from Jan through June, at that place were ix deaths.) In 2019, 12 U.S. citizens were killed in Tijuana, data evidence.
The disappearance of Americans can bring much needed constabulary enforcement attending to specific criminal groups, which helps other Mexican families searching for their missing loved ones. When the remains of the missing Solana Beach couple were discovered in a well south of Ensenada, authorities as well discovered other bodies in the same location.
"We take to look until they find an American for them to await," said Lupita, the mother of a missing Baja California adult female, who asked that her last name not be used to protect her personal prophylactic.
Lupita, who is however searching for her daughter, said the deaths of the American retirees was horrific and tragic. At the same time, she hoped possibly some valuable information could come of it.
"At least now some other (Mexican) families might have some answers," she said.
San Diego Wedlock-Tribune reporter Alexandra Mendoza contributed to this report.
Source: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/border-baja-california/story/2020-10-25/us-citizens-missing-mexico
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