“HEARST” and “Redlogarythm” for Borderland Beat
A surveillance video captured the moment when cartel hitmen kidnapped the wife and infant daughter of an Army soldier in Zacatecas.
As of the writing of this story, the woman and child are still missing. Many are beginning to question whether the attack was the work of the Sinaloa Cartel or the CJNG.
The Kidnapping
On April 4, 2023, the Mexican Army (SEDENA) released a letter which announced that two women and a baby had been kidnapped the day before (April 3) while they were driving on a road in the city of Fresnillo, in the state of Zacatecas.
They stated that one of the kidnapped women was the wife of an Army soldier from the 97th battalion and the kidnapped baby was their daughter. The Army said they were sending additional soldiers to Fresnillo “to find the whereabouts of the kidnapped women and those responsible.”
On that same day, the state Attorney General’s Office (FGE) issued a missing persons alert, shown below, which depicted the two women and baby who were kidnapped.
The soldier’s wife, Vianey Leonor Guzmán Herrera, is 26 years old and she only gave birth to their baby daughter, Zoé Kailany Hernández Guzmán, 6 months earlier.
The kidnapping occurred while the wife was in the car with another 26 year old woman, a presumed friend of Vianey, named Alma Yuliana Muñoz Álvarez, who was abducted alongside them.
A traffic camera captured the moment when hitmen stopped the women’s black sedan at the intersection of Prolongación Sonora Avenue and Magisterio Street in Fresnillo, forcing the victims to get out of the vehicle at gunpoint.
Below is an edited version of the only portion of the surveillance video which has been released to the public. The video was published by Milenio newspaper, which highlighted the action abduction with a red circle.
The exact way in which the hitmen forced the women’s vehicle to stop has not been released.
Various news organizations, however, give hints to what exactly occurred in their coverage of the event.
El Imparcial writes that “armed men intercepted a vehicle on one of the roads in Fresnillo and forced two women and a baby to get out of their car and took them away in a van headed to an unknown destination.”
Proceso magazine writes that “the black car in which the victims were traveling was intercepted by men driving in a white SUV.”
Newspaper El Sol de Zacatecas writes that “an armed group intercepted the vehicle in which two adult women and a baby were driving, violently forcing them to get out of the car and to get into another vehicle which fled the area.”
Reforma writes that “armed men who were following them in a white SUV stopped them, got them out of the vehicle.”
A witness to the abduction reportedly called the emergency phone line and police officers were dispatched to the area where they confirmed the finding of the abandoned vehicle on the road.
Traffic surveillance footage was reviewed, and an Alba Alert was issued. An Alba Alert is the Mexican equivalent of the US Amber Alert, except no details on the perpetrators vehicle are released.
Reforma newspaper exclusively writes that “local reports indicated that the kidnappers have already made contact with authorities, however, it is unknown if they asked for some type of ransom.
Cartel Groups, Motive, and a Lack of Answers
Fresnillo is one of the towns in Zacatecas which has consistently been warred over by the Sinaloa Cartel (CDS) and the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG) and the local allies of both groups.
Fresnillo, along with Valparaiso and Jerez, have been the backdrop for some of the major fights between the CDS, who largely control the northern part of the state, and CJNG, who largely control the southern part of the state.
There is very little on the ground news reporting coming out of Zacatecas due to the extreme violence of the CDS and CJNG fighting. Cartel violence has forced towns of people to flee their homes to temporarily live in nearby cities as refugees.
The lack of journalists in Zacatecas means there is a lack of reliable information on where CDS or CJNG currently control. Instead social media claims can sometimes be the only source for information.
In recent months, some social media users have claimed that CDS gained major ground. However, almost all information on the conflict comes from sources who clearly favor either CDS or CJNG, each side overestimating the success of their favored group.
The Army’s press release did not indicate if authorities currently believe it was a targeted or random kidnapping.
A targeted kidnapping, for example, would be if the hitmen followed the women’s vehicle because they knew the identity of Vianey’s husband and they had some personal motive against him.
Alternatively, the kidnapping could have been a crime of opportunity, in which kidnappers were simply roaming the area looking for targets and selected the women’s vehicle because they seemed the least able to physically resist an abduction.
It is relatively common in Mexico to see municipal and state police officers killed by cartel hitmen as retribution for carrying out an arrest or seizure which displeased their organization. As the years go on, higher and higher ranking police have become targets of attacks.
For example, in August 2022, CDS hitmen killed the new deputy Chief of Police in Culiacan in a particularly brutal manner.
In recent years, soldiers from the military are also increasingly being targeted. In December 2022, the Army announced that the CJNG was behind the recent kidnapping of a colonel in Tapalpa, Jalisco.
Update 3:15 CST:
Borderland Beat has spoken with security analyst David Saucedo about who currently controls Fresnillo, Zacatecas. Saucedo told us that Fresnillo is currently under the control of the CDS – Mayo associated group Operativa Flechas/MZ. Saucedo says that recently CDS has pushed back CJNG forces south, past even Jerez.
He clarifies that CJNG is still able to regularly conduct regular incursions into CDS territory, often doing hit-and-run style operations on drug sale locations and on CDS-associated government officials.
Saucedo said he was aware of the recent kidnapping of the soldier’s family, and although he was not privy to investigation details, he believes the CJNG has the logistical capabilities to pull off such a kidnapping.
He says that in recent days, most of the military and law enforcement operations in Zacatecas have been concentrated on targeting the CJNG – not CDS, possibly alluding to a potential motive.
Sources: FGE’s Official Missing Persons Alert, Proceso, El Imparcial, Latin US, El Sol de Zacatecas, Express Zacatecas, Aristegui Noticias, Vanguardia, Azucena Uresti, Reforma, Lopez Doriga, La Silla Rota, Santiagod181281, JOSEANGELMART18