An American teenager is preventing for his life after being shot in a nighttime drive-by ambush in northern Mexico that killed his father and uncle, each U.S. residents, and a Mexican relative, a household spokeswoman mentioned Wednesday.
{The teenager}, Jason Peña of Chicago, was shot at the back of the pinnacle Friday and stays in important situation, mentioned household spokeswoman Julie Contreras, a pastor and director of United Giving Hope, a Chicago-based advocacy group. in a phone interview from Illinois.
When Jason was discovered by police hours after the Dec. 27 assault in Durango, she mentioned, he was mendacity unconscious outdoors the car however “his coronary heart was nonetheless beating.”
“We’ve got a fighter on our fingers,” she mentioned.
{The teenager}, who turned 14 on Monday, was airlifted Wednesday to Houston from the Mexican metropolis of Durango, which is about 600 miles south of El Paso. He was accompanied by his mom, a nurse, who had flown in from the Chicago space, Ms. Contreras mentioned.
A spokesman for the US embassy on Wednesday confirmed the loss of life of two US residents within the municipality of Santiago Papaschiaro, the place the assault befell. An announcement mentioned officers had been “conscious of studies of an harm to a minor” and that the embassy was offering help to the households of the victims. Mexican authorities are investigating the assault, the spokesman mentioned.
A spokesman for the Durango State’s Lawyer’s Workplace mentioned the episode is underneath investigation however couldn’t provide extra info.
The killings come amid a spate of current assaults on Individuals in Mexico.
Simply weeks in the past, a pair visited from California killed within the state of Michoacán, the place drug gangs are preventing to dominate the native financial system and drug trafficking routes. Safety brokers discovered the couple in a automotive that had been shot at.
In Might, the our bodies of an American and two Australian brothers were found in a body of water after they disappeared whereas browsing and tenting within the state of Baja California.
And in March 2023 two Individuals crossed the border in a bunch of 4 associates were kidnapped and killed by gunmen within the border city of Matamoros, within the state of Tamaulipas.
Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, has vowed to deal with the nation’s violence. “Be assured that we’ll scale back the crime price,” she mentioned final month.
The state of Durango, which borders Sinaloa, is underneath a Level 2 travel advice from the US State Division, that means US vacationers are being urged to train warning within the space because of the risk of crime. Durango noticed just lately increase in violence believed to be linked to the Sinaloa cartel, together with in Santiago Papasciaro.
The Durango murders occurred throughout a household trip journey. Jason’s father, Vicente Peña Jr., who’s divorced from Jason’s mom, in keeping with a household spokeswoman, had gone from Chicago to go to family in Mexico together with his two sons, Jason and his 9-year-old brother. The identify of the youthful boy has not been launched.
4 individuals—Jason’s father; his uncle Antonio Fernandez; and one other relative, Jorge Eduardo Vargas Aguirre, a Mexican nationwide, left the house the place they had been staying at about 9 p.m. Friday to purchase meals and drinks, Ms. Contreras mentioned.
After they did not return, Jason’s youthful brother, who had stayed together with his grandfather, turned involved and texted Jason, she mentioned, however acquired no response. Then their grandfather referred to as the native authorities.
Round 11 p.m., authorities discovered the household’s car, an SUV with Illinois license plates, with the our bodies of the three males inside; all had been shot a number of occasions, Ms. Contrera mentioned. Mr. Peña had been shot within the face and was “unrecognizable,” she mentioned. His brother, Mr. Fernandez, was additionally shot within the head, she mentioned, and Mr. Vargas died of gunshot wounds to his physique.
“They had been ambushed; they had been executed,” Ms. Contrera mentioned. The household’s automotive was not taken, she mentioned.
Ms Contreras mentioned she had communicated with the US State Division and that Mexican authorities had not indicated a motive. However she mentioned locals say individuals keep away from driving on the freeway after darkish as a result of it’s managed by the cartel.
“You’ll be able to’t stroll on the roads with no allow,” Ms. Contrera mentioned. “The street was not allowed to be traveled by the cartels after curfew.” The data couldn’t be independently confirmed.
Jason was initially taken to a neighborhood clinic after which to a state hospital within the metropolis of Durango, Ms. Contreras mentioned. However the hospital is not geared up to deal with critical accidents like Jason’s, she mentioned; half his head was smashed.
The boys’ mom organized for Jason to be flown to Texas Youngsters’s Hospital in Houston, Ms. Contreras mentioned. (The mom requested to not be named whereas in Mexico, fearing the household might turn into a goal, in keeping with Ms. Contreras.) The aircraft landed in Houston on Wednesday night time.
“He is on American soil,” Ms. Contreras mentioned, including of the boy’s mom: “It has been an absolute nightmare for her.”
Emiliano Rodriguez Mega contributed reporting.
