Comedy of a Mexican captive: a lot of strange things were discovered in the kidnapping of a Russian woman

In the story of the kidnapping of a Russian tourist in Mexico, something confuses thoughtful news consumers. But rejoicing that the girl was found alive, most fellow citizens turn a blind eye to the strangeness of her disappearance. But the Mexicans were even slightly offended by the devaluation of their formidable cartels, which keep the whole world in fear, to the level of “road thugs worth a thousand bucks.”

We listened to the version of the disappearance of our Masha that was circulating among law-abiding citizens of Mexico.

The fact that a 23-year-old married Russian woman left alone for Mexico more than three weeks ago and, apparently, was in no hurry to return home, is no longer surprising to the Russian news consumer today: surrounded by flags of sanctions and prices, our tourists are going to great lengths, conquering the Amazon jungle and African wilds. For the same reason, fellow citizens were not very shocked that the young girl used couchsurfing to accommodate herself (literally “searching for a sofa”, literally – spending the night in the house of a stranger who is ready to play roulette with fate, letting anyone found on a special “sofa” resource spend the night).

“In quiet times, we have fun with this to tickle our nerves,” says ex-Russian Daria, she has been living in the USA for 30 years. – But only at the dacha, where there is a large company. You also won’t let unknown people into the apartment, as Ostap Bender said, where the money is. And certainly not in Mexico. Even in better times, Americans from San Diego (the last American city on the land border with Mexico – Author) never lost their vigilance, although we always vacation there, it’s the cheapest there.

But we cannot allow ourselves to be so timid: given our realities, if you want to rest, you won’t get so excited. This may explain why a Russian tourist who found herself in Mexico for the first time settled in industrial Monterey, known only for the fact that it is the northernmost of the country’s major metropolises. But what is it about the disappearance of Maria Rigovich and her subsequent discovery without a phone, money and backpack that still confuses the most thoughtful of her compatriots.

“Suppose a “couch” (“sofa”) was found only in Monterey,” argues Muscovite Olga, who recently visited the same Mexico, but on a tour purchased in the Russian Federation, and therefore was keenly interested in Maria’s story. – But why is the tourist not going to Chichen Itza (Mayan pyramids – Author), not to Teotihuacan (Aztec pyramids – Author), not to the Caribbean coast, but to some Reynosa?! There are so many interesting things in Mexico, but I haven’t even heard this name from the guides!

According to Olga, organized foreign tourists in Mexico are warned that crime is high and they should not wander around cities alone in the evening, as they may be robbed by force. Although the Muscovite herself, in two weeks during which she traveled all over Mexico, starting from the capital, visiting all the historical places and ending the tour with a vacation in the Caribbean resort of Riviera Maya, saw only friendly attention from the Mexicans.

– Yes, no matter where your Masha was going, how did she already know, even before their car was caught up by a “truck with armed people”, that these were “bandits from the cartel” who would probably kill her?! — the Russian-speaking Mexican Carlos, who has been living in Russia for a long time with his Russian wife, gets excited. – Yes, we have cartels, but they don’t knock down 1-2 thousand “greenbacks” from lonely tourists with one backpack!

“But maybe they weren’t after her backpack, but thought that her relatives would certainly send a generous ransom for such a young foreigner?”

— Just imagine: the outskirts of the country, the landscape is like in a Western, only the cowboys are not on a horse, but on a truck. To waste their time kidnapping passengers in a car with local license plates, they must at least know that a foreign tourist is sitting in the cabin with a Mexican family, and she has relatives who have money. How did the “cartel” know that there was a Russian woman in the Mexican car, and how did the Russian woman know that there was a “cartel” in the truck? And why did a tourist from a country where payment cards are blocked suddenly have a card where she can transfer the ransom to the “cartel”? Yes, in my country there is indeed a crime situation, but in this case it is simply used for something else.

— Do you suspect a conspiracy between Maria and her “couch” Mexican family?

— I only know that 1.5 thousand dollars is not cartel level. But simply headless road robbers would not release any of those caught. And my wife found even more amazing information on Maria’s social networks: it turns out that she went to Mexico… to organize pickets in support of a Chechen girl who was kidnapped by her own relatives! A strange flash mob for the other side of the world.

According to Maria’s husband, the night before the kidnapping, she actually sent him a voice message that the car in which she was traveling with her new Mexican friends to Reynosa was being pursued by “cartel” thugs who would “most likely kill them all.” But then the Mexican family was released because “their nine-year-old son began to cry,” and Maria was left behind, asking her relatives for a ransom of $1.5 thousand. But then the “cartel” thought and threw in another $900. And three days later, when Maria’s Russian relatives collected and transferred the money, and the Russian consulate and the Mexican police were knocked down, Maria was found, having lost only her travel backpack in this “cartel western.”

Light on Maria’s secrets is unexpectedly shed by her 55-year-old namesake, a native of Mexico City, a professor at a local university, voicing the opinion of the circle to which she belongs.

“Reynosa is an illegal transshipment corridor in the United States,” explains Mexican Maria. “And something is always happening there, since everyone breaks the law: both those who try to cross the border illegally, and those who help them with this for money. And when everything is illegal, this is an excuse for other criminals to make money. I know that for humanitarian reasons, one of our churches helps Russians cross the border without the necessary documents. The password is “burrito russo.” Of course, this is not advertised: the US borders are very fortified now, without the assistance of border guards the corridor will definitely not open, so the churchmen, apparently, have some kind of agreement on the other side. But this is a drop in the bucket of illegal refugees crowding into Reynosa. The rest are duped by scammers: they promise a corridor, set a fee, and then rob them themselves at the entrance to the city, knowing that people definitely have cash on them to pay for breaking the law. And it’s not a sin to rob something like that.

Respectable residents of Reynosa are trying to move from there to the interior of the country. According to them, because of the fatal corridor, their once sweet provincial town has become a crowd of beggars and all sorts of petty thieves. Left without money and the promised service, failed refugees abandon their elderly relatives, and they themselves resort to any kind of income, including criminal ones. But they haven’t brought normal tourists to Reynosa for a long time. And on the American side, immigration lawyer from San Diego Robert Smirnitsky warns: even if the “Reynosa corridor,” a long-standing headache for Americans, suddenly opens by some miracle, it will not be a direct path to the green card coveted by refugees, but to an American immigration court. Don’t expect anything good from him. And it reminds how a year ago the Russian consul in Mexico City found a 73-year-old “foundling” under his window – a Russian pensioner in a wheelchair: her son and daughter-in-law also did not have the coveted corridor to the United States, and in troubled Mexico, a disabled mother is a burden.