Another American woman, Shelbie Lynn Dwyer, 17, goes missing in Mexico

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The Sinaloa Prosecutor’s Office considers that the minor, whose trace was lost on March 31, “is at risk” and “may be the victim of a crime.”

Shelbie Lynn Dwyer, a 17-year-old American, disappeared on March 31 in the municipality of Salvador Alvarado, Sinaloa. The State Prosecutor’s Office issued a search alert for the minor on Tuesday, establishing that the day her trail was lost, the young woman “could have been in the Curiosita cyber and stationery store, in Guamúchil, without any more information about her possible whereabouts. The Public Ministry considers that Lynn Dwyer “is at risk, since she may be the victim of the commission of a crime.”

Lynn Dwyer has a slim build, standing at 1.57 meters tall and her body is decorated with tattoos such as the word “blessed” on her right arm, the word “bite me” on her butt, a small heart on her left middle finger, or “doves.” and prayer hands on the upper left arm”, according to the search file of the Prosecutor’s Office.

Lynn Dwyer’s is not an exceptional disappearance. In recent months, the press throughout Mexico has reported similar cases of other American women, a problem that adds to the serious crisis of femicides and disappearances of Mexican women that already existed in the country. From the last case less than a week ago: Bionce Amaya Cortez, a 20-year-old Mexican woman residing in Texas, was found dead over the weekend in Nuevo León, her home state, where she had gone to spend her vacation from Easter week. The State Prosecutor’s Office is investigating the event as a femicide.

In the same area of Nuevo León where Cortez disappeared, last February the trail of three other Americans of Mexican origin, also residents of Texas, were lost: Marina Pérez Ríos, Maritza Trinida Pérez Ríos and Dora Alicia Cervantes Saenz, who were allegedly going to sell clothes at a flea market Two months later, no one knows where they are.

Added to the list is the case of Mónica de León Barba, kidnapped in November in Jalisco. The FBI is offering a $40,000 reward for any information leading to her discovery. Also María del Carmen López, who disappeared in Colima this February, allegedly also kidnapped, according to the FBI, which offers a $20,000 reward for her appearance. The statistics grow month by month while the Government ensures that it works to solve the crisis.

The disappearance of Lynn Dwyer occurs in a context of diplomatic tensions between Mexico and the United States due to the insecurity crisis that is taking place south of the Rio Grande, triggered by the highly publicized disappearance of four US citizens last February in Tamaulipas. Two were found alive, two dead. The most radical wing of the US Republican Party used the event as gasoline to feed an old aspiration of the most conservative sectors: declare the drug cartels terrorist groups in order to carry out military operations on Mexican soil.

This week it was learned that US intelligence agencies even spied on members of the Mexican Gulf Cartel in March, suspected of having committed the crime. In addition to the kidnapping, the excuse used by conservatives to request military intervention in Mexico was the fentanyl epidemic that has caused records of overdose deaths in the last year in the US. A sector of Republicans accuses Mexico of producing the opioid which is then consumed on the other side of the border. The president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, turned against the proposal. “Mexico is much safer than the United States,” said the president in a political outrage in which he also stated that he is not going to let the neighboring country “step on” national sovereignty. “We have to maintain our relationship, cooperation with the United States is very important, but without subordination,” he later qualified.

The US Department of State maintains the alert on its citizens not to travel to six Mexican States: Colima, Guerrero, Michoacán, Sinaloa, Tamaulipas and Zacatecas, due to “crime” and “kidnappings”. The agency also recommends “reconsidering” if the destination of the trip is Baja California, Chihuahua, Durango, Guanajuato, Jalisco, Morelos or Sonora. Only for Campeche and Yucatán, US Department of State indicates that “the normal precautions for a trip” must be exercised. For the rest of the territories, it urges to “exercise caution”.

In Mexico, almost 112,000 people have disappeared since 1964, according to official data. In 2023 alone, 30,968 were murdered in the country, where less than 1% of crimes are solved, according to an analysis of the civil organization Impunidad Cero.

Source: El Pais