A perilous journey to U.S. includes kidnapping and death by the cartels

A perilous journey awaited a 21-year-old Managua, Nicaraguan man. His journey from Central America began with dreams of a life in America, but notorious Mexican cartel members of Los Zetas promptly ended his northbound trek and kidnapped him short of his goal.

Family members of the kidnapped man say they are unable to pay the $4,000 ransom.

The kidnapped man’s father told El Nuevo Diario that he was poor and has only raised $100.

“The man told the newspaper that a suspected member of Los Zetas, a band of Mexican special forces deserters turned hired guns and drug traffickers, called him last Thursday and allowed him to briefly speak with his son,” according to a report from Latin American Herald Tribune.

The kidnapped victim told his father ,on a demand for ransom phone call that; “they have me here, and this man says that if they get the money they’ll let me go.”

Apparently the Los Zetas kidnappers originally wanted $10,000 but reduced the ransom to $4,000, according to El Nuevo Diario.

The only property of value the victim’s family has is their house and they are now trying to sell the property but haven’t had any luck selling it yet.

The victim’s father said his son left Nicaragua in June through Mexico, hoping to cross the border illegally into America to find work in order to support his very poor family in their small Central American country.

The Nicaraguan National Police director Aminta Granera said they are working jointly with Mexican police and Interpol to learn more details about the kidnapping.

Granera said the victim’s mother filed a missing persons report on Sept. 6th with the Chinandega Police Department, but the exact date of the kidnapping remains unknown.

If the man was snatched by Los Zetas his fate may already be sealed. Authorities are pointing the finger at Los Zetas for the murder of 72 migrants last month 100 miles shy of the U.S. border.

The murdered migrants were from the Central and South American countries of Brazil, Ecuador, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras.

The 18-year-old survivor, Luis Freddy Lala Pomavilla, told Mexican marines about the massacre and said the migrants were killed after they refused to work for the Los Zetas cartel.

The Los Zetas cartel has moved up the drug cartel ranks in the past few years after they broke away from the Gulf cartel. The Zetas began the underworld career after they received highly-specialized training from the U.S. military, joined the Mexican military, deserted the Mexican military and became known as the militant-wing of the Gulf cartel.

However, they quickly realized they were highly trained and didn’t need the Gulf cartel any longer and they struck out on their own and have quickly taken over major smuggling corridors in the high-profit world of illicit drugs.

With Mexico quickly becoming the most dangerous place on the planet, migrants who seek a new life in America must now pass through treacherous cartel territory on their way to the promise land. This tale of a kidnapping is just another reason America needs to secure its border and deal with the illegal immigration problem before the world blames the U.S. for the death of these workers who are trying to break into the U.S. illegally.

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