Five rideshare drivers missing after trip to border

From left to right: Abigael Ramos Gonzalez, Sandra Patricia Salais Calzadiaz, Fabian Alberto Ramos Torres and Abigael Ramos Torres.

EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – Relatives of five rideshare drivers are demanding answers five days after their loved ones disappeared in the border town of Ojinaga, Mexico.

The five men left the city of Chihuahua early last Thursday in separate vehicles and their relatives lost contact with them.

The Chihuahua Attorney General's Office identified them as Abigael Ramos Gonzalez, Abigael Ramos Torres, Fabian Ramos Torres, Sandra Salais Calzadillas and Francisco Ivan Flores Hernandez. The AG's office said the cars left the state capitol at 11 a.m. Some called, texted or used phone apps at 4 p.m. to tell loved ones they were leaving Ojinaga but never returned to Chihuahua.

Relatives say they located four of the five rental cars on a vacant lot in Ojinaga, about a three-hour drive (172 miles) northeast of the state capital. The last GPS location of the still-missing fifth vehicle was near a ranch called Alamo El Chapo.

On Monday, the families staged a protest in a park across from the Chihuahua city government palace, saying they were leading the investigation because authorities had been slow to respond.

“We went to see the prosecutor's office on Saturday to see if they had any information, but they said they didn't work on weekends and that (Sunday's) elections were bothering them,” said Pablo Martinez, son of Sandra Salais, during the protest broadcast. on social networks. “We are here to ask them to speed up the search, take into account what we have learned and check the cars' GPS and the Sentinel platform (security cameras).”

The attorney general's office said it has assigned state police officers as well as specialists from the missing persons unit to investigate the case.

Speaking to Mexican media, Deputy Attorney General Heliodoro Araiza said Monday that the four vehicles had been sent to an impound lot and that “all relevant investigations” were underway. He told El Sol de Ojinaga newspaper that authorities do not rule out that the drivers were transporting migrants to the border.

Ojinaga is located across the Rio Grande from Presidio, Texas. The city gained international media attention in October 2021, when 13 Mexican migrants were kidnapped and killed as part of rival drug cartels' fight for control of migrant smuggling in the Chihuahua-Ojinaga corridor. Ten of the bodies were found two years later in a clandestine grave in the nearby town of Coyame.

In a Facebook group made up of Mexican entrepreneurs from the Uber and DiDi platforms, members posted numerous messages of solidarity with the families of the missing. One of them, however, posted a warning: “These are the consequences of transporting (people) without papers. It’s a federal crime and with the mafia, it’s a beating – at least.”