Members of the Mexican Army and municipal police guard respond to prison violence in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico (2023). The U.S. State Department has warned that widespread violent crimes such as homicide, kidnapping, carjacking and robbery are all common in Mexico and U.S. authorities have urged travelers to be cautious in specific regions. File Photo by Luis Torres/EPA-EFE
A boy remains in critical condition after a shooting in Mexico killed 2 U.S. citizens and another person. Police say the victims were an American family on vacation.
Three adult men, two of whom were U.S. citizens, were killed Friday in the west-central Mexican state of Durango, according the Durango Attorney General’s Office. Advertisement
Authorities are investigating if robbery was a motive, ABC reported.
American brothers Vicente Pena Rodriguez, 38, and Antonio “Tony” Fernandez Rodriguez, 44, were killed, along with a relative, Jorge Eduardo Vargas Aguirre, who was a local Mexican resident.
The 14-year-old son of Vicente Rodriguez, who lived in Chicago, is reported to be in a coma and in critical condition. The victims were found Friday night in Durango next to their SUV. They had gunshot wounds to the head.
The U.S. government in a reissued September advisory urged American citizens to “exercise increased caution” while traveling to Durango due to a rise in crime.
The family was celebrating the teen’s birthday and visiting with relatives while traveling in a black GMC Yukon with its Illinois license plate when the incident took place, officials added. Advertisement
Conflicts between rival drug cartels and Mexican government forces have claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, opening the door to a violent social breakdown in parts of Mexico over the years in an ongoing national security struggle which has its ties to mass migration.
The SUV was located on the side of the Francisco Zarco highway in an area that has seen a reported spike in crime.
One of the family’s grandmothers in Chicago said she got a frantic call from her daughter.
“She said ‘Mom, they killed my boy. They killed Junior. They killed my brother-in-law. I don’t know what to do,'” Maria Elena Hernandez told ABC7 in Illinois via translator.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of State highlighted that widespread violent crimes such as homicide, kidnapping, carjacking and robbery are all common in Mexico and urged travelers to be cautious in specific regions, according to a travel advisory.
