They call it “the highway of death,” or “Carretera de la muerte.”
It’s a 136-mile highway that connects the cities of Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, and Monterrey, Nuevo León in México, and in it, dozens of people have disappeared, leaving their loved ones and Mexican authorities clueless as to their whereabouts.
In September 2021, México’s National Search Commission reported that at least 71 people have disappeared while traveling on the highway since October 2020 — about half a dozen are Americans, according to the data.
Relatives of those missing, however, say that the victims exceed 150.
The case of Pedro who disappeared on April 23, 2021, is just one of them.
That day, Pedro was traveling on that highway accompanied by a friend. They were running a private taxi service that day and transporting two families from Nuevo Laredo to Monterrey. Pedro’s wife, Juana María said that he contacted her when they were already on their way back to Monterrey.
And on May 2024, one of the bloodiest Mexican cartels sent a message through social networks warning truck drivers and motorists to pay the protection fee or face the consequences, while driving on that road between midnight and six in the morning.
The image has gone viral, and the Mexican authorities are not doing anything.
