Nearly 600 Americans have gone missing in Mexico, SpyTalk reported, citing Mexico's Ministry of Interior.
That number may be considered a small portion of a much larger problem: more than 112,000 Mexicans remain missing in the country. However, it's a number for which Americans – upset family, friends, and advocates of the who have disappeared – are well aware.
They insist the U.S. State Department has not done enough to assist them in uncovering the whereabouts of loved ones.
Such claims have been heard many times by The Missing Americans Project (TMAP), a private initiative that helps families locate missing relatives and friends.
"Families of Americans who disappear in foreign countries should not have to reinvent the wheel," the TMAP website read. "Unfortunately, this is what too often happens: people in deep distress have to learn how to run an international search and rescue operation, raise funds, cultivate relationships with nongovernmental organizations, and work with the media — all within hours of learning their loved one is missing."
TMAP points to an "absence of clear standard operating procedures within and among U.S. embassies" as well a lack of support from the State Department as contributing to the problem, adding it "leads to an unconscionable waste of time when time is of the essence."
The State Department disagrees. Although it cites privacy concerns and declines to confirm how many Americans remain missing overseas, it insists the safety of those U.S. citizens is of the highest priority for its embassies and consulates.
"Whenever we receive a report of a missing American citizen, our team on the ground, the team back here, springs into action to support the family, to support the loved ones in every way we can," State Department spokesman Ned Price said during a press briefing in March.
The problem of missing Americans is not unique to Mexico, Price added.
"Oftentimes our embassy will receive a report of a missing American only for the family to be reunited with that American hours or in some cases slightly later, and without that follow-up to the U.S. embassy," he said.
Price was unable to cite a figure for cases that have been resolved without being updated to reflect as such in the State Department's books.
The Office of American Citizen Services and Crisis Management (ACS) is a specialized unit within the State Department assigned to locate missing Americans overseas. The unit is headed by Kimberly Furnish, a career State Department officer who previously served as the International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Attaché at the U.S. consulate in Karachi, Pakistan.
Roberta Jacobson, a career Foreign Service officer who served as the U.S. ambassador to Mexico from 2016 to 2018, told SpyTalk there is a process involved.
"When ACS learns a citizen has gone missing in country X, they task the embassy or consulate in that country to query local law enforcement if that person was arrested, robbed, or killed," she told SpyTalk. "In cases involving kidnapping, the FBI will be called in, as well as other government agencies, depending on who has the best intelligence."
Jerry Brewer, who trains Latin American law enforcement units under a State Department progam, told SpyTalk that one of the FBI's most significant resources is the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), which has the most detailed and accurate intelligence on criminal activity in Mexico.
"[The DEA] are there, on the ground, who know who the corrupt people are," he said, but also noting if the agency does not have any intel, "then nobody has it. ... Then the FBI can't do very much. They're looking at a cold case."
As for the nearly 600 missing Americans currently missing, Jacobsen said that the State Department's procedures for finding them can run up against obstacles. In some cases, the FBI cannot open an investigation into a kidnapped American without at first receiving approval from the Mexican government. Even when the bureau receives approval, doors do not always open, according to Jacobson.
"The logical place to go for help first would be the local police, who have the best eyes and ears on the ground," Jacobson said. "Unfortunately, Mexico's 400,000 local police tend to be the most corrupt."
Jacobson's successor, Republican lawyer Christopher Landau, said the corruption goes much higher than the local police; drug cartels offer hefty bribes — and dispense deadly violence against those who refuse — to suborn police, judges, and government officials at the state and federal levels.
In one instance in March, the Gulf cartel proved more effective than Mexican and American authorities, providing vital information that resulted in the rescue and repatriation of two Americans from a kidnapping that saw two others dead in Matamoros.
In addition to apologizing for the incident, the cartel handed over the low-level cartel foot soldiers that were responsible for the kidnapping.
Although that particular case was resolved, State Department officials confirm the threats of kidnapping for ransom and violent crime facing Americans in Mexico are serious, and growing. U.S. citizens have been warned by State Department travel advisories not to travel to six of Mexico's 31 states — Colima, Guerrero, Michoacan, Sinaloa Tamaulipas, and Zacatecas — and to reconsider travel or exercise extreme caution when traveling to Mexico, including popular beach resorts such as Cancun and Playa del Carmen.
The kidnapping, crimes, and murders of American citizens in Mexico has also not gone unnoticed on Capitol Hill. As reported by SpyTalk, several former Trump administration officials introduced legislation last March that would officially brand cartels and other armed gangs as foreign terrorist groups and allow for the use of military force against them.
"I would tell the Mexican government, 'If you don't clean up your act, we're going to clean it up for you,'" Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., has said.
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