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Kidnapping of seven Mexican teenagers strikes fear into Zacatecas

The youngsters were seized by an armed group early Sunday morning. Nobody knows where they are or the reason for the crime

Alejandro Santos Cid
The seven teenagers kidnapped in Zacatecas, in images shared on social networks.
The seven teenagers kidnapped in Zacatecas, in images shared on social networks.

The youngest is only 14 years old, the oldest had just turned 18. The seven Mexican teenagers were friends and family. On Saturday night, the group got together to have dinner with more relatives and enjoy the weekend. But at 4 a.m. on Sunday, several vehicles loaded with armed men broke into the ranch where they were staying, El Potrerito, in the community of Malpaso, in Zacatecas. The seven teenagers were kidnapped. Three days later, there is no news of their whereabouts.

The kidnapping of seven teenagers has once again struck fear into Zacatecas, a state accustomed to violence and disappearances. Nobody knows where the youngsters are, and the first days are key to finding them alive. Mexican authorities have launched a search operation made up of 300 soldiers from the Secretariat of National Defense (Sedena), the National Guard and police officers from the different communities of Villanueva, the municipality where the crime took place.

But so far, there are many more questions than certainties. It is not known why the teenagers were kidnapped, nor how many armed men took part in the crime. “Around 4 a.m. they began to notice the presence of a criminal group, people who arrived in vehicles, they took them out and took them away,” said Zacatecas prosecutor Francisco Murillo, who said police are still working to find the teenagers. Local media in Zacatecas suggested that the operation has managed to locate the alleged vehicle in which the youths were abducted; however, neither the Attorney General’s Office nor authorities have confirmed the discovery.

In its last official communication, the Attorney General’s Office announced that it had spoken to the victims’ relatives, who blocked the Zacatecas-Malpaso highway, near the Regional Security Unit (Unirse) on Tuesday to pressure authorities to take more action to find the teenagers.

“I want my son, I want my sons,” cried one of the mothers of the kidnapping victims at the road block. “We want them alive. I am not part of the government. If I were, I’d be in a helicopter,” said the woman, who also criticized the governor of Zacatecas, David Monreal, for not daring to “show his face.”

Meanwhile, the community is holding its breath and praying that the teenagers return alive. The young men who were kidnapped are:

According to official data, of the 111,648 missing people in Mexico, 3,650 are from Zacatecas. Like much of the rest of the country, the state is disputed by the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (JNGC) and the Sinaloa Cartel. The two criminal organizations are fighting one another for control of the area and its drug trafficking routes. In 2021, Zacatecas was the state with the highest number of people who had been forced to flee from violence, according to a January report by the Mexican Commission for the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights.

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