Mexican Government Downplays Abduction of Colombian Family

Mexican authorities in the cartel-controlled state of Zacatecas are trying to downplay the abduction of a Colombian family who are believed to have been taken by gunmen. Through the use of semantics and word games, government officials are hiding the raging cartel violence in Zacatecas.

The abduction took place on October 27, when Jorge Alejandro Garcia Villamil, 44,  his wife Yulieth Andrea Alfonso Alfonso,36, and their children David Alejandro, three, and Mia Garcia Alfonso, six, and their brother Daniel Jose Martinez Alfonso, 11, were in the town of Calera when a group of gunmen took them by force, Mexico’s Reforma first reported. Other versions of the event claim that a group of gunmen took the family from a passenger bus while they were traveling.

Days later, Zacatecas state authorities issued a series of Amber alerts for the children and similar alerts for the adults, asking for information on their whereabouts. However, Zacatecas Secretary of State Rodrigo Reyes Muguerza claimed the information about the abduction was false. Reyes Muguerza tried to play word games to claim they had issued the alerts at the request of the Colombian government, who notified them that the family was reported as missing. According to the politician, the family traveled by bus from Mexico City to Ciudad Juarez and were last seen in Zacatecas.

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On Friday evening, Reyes Muguerza claimed that the Colombian family had been found in the state of Durango and had not been abducted from a house as reported by Reforma.

The attempt by Reyes Muguerza to minimize the abduction comes as Zacatecas continues to be ravaged by cartel violence. Rival criminal organizations have been carrying out several abductions and forced disappearances where the victims are never heard from again.

As Breitbart Texas reported, in January 2022, cartel gunmen left ten dismembered bodies outside of the Zacatecas governor’s office. At the time, Governor David Monreal claimed that the violence was the result of prior administrations. Since then, Monreal and his staff have been unable to stop the raging cartel violence in their state.

Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. 

Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..