The strange disappearance of 23 tourists from Guanajuato

The Guanajuato government sent 2 helicopters to track down the missing tourists. SSPEG

Confusion of confusion in central Mexico, after the disappearance of 23 people this Tuesday, when they were traveling in two trucks from Guanajuato to Coahuila.

The group disappeared in the north of San Luis Potosí, as reported by the company that rented them the vehicles.

In interviews with various media, those responsible have indicated that the person with whom they had agreed to rent, called them to tell them that they were kidnapped and that they were asking for payment to release them.

On Wednesday, the San Luis Potosí Prosecutor's Office reported the rescue of 16 people in the area where the 23 had been reported missing, noting that they were part of the same group.

Later, the unit reported that these were different events.

The disappearance of the 23 occurs in an area, the north of San Luis Potosí, which has not been known for violence or insecurity for a long time.

It has appeared on crime maps in the past, especially in the last years of Felipe Calderón's six-year term (2006-2012), in the midst of the Army's offensive against criminal groups, and due to the battle between the two criminal networks present in the area at the time, the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas.

But what is happening now is surprising, first because of the place where it happened and then because of the media absence of his relatives, who until now have made no noise to locate their own.

In an interview with the newspaper

the head of the company, Adrián González, said that the group left San Felipe, in Guanajuato, at about 10:00 p.m. on Monday.

At 4:00 on Tuesday, the man realized, through the GPS, that the two trucks, driven by company drivers, stopped near Matehuala, in San Luis Potosí.

In the following hours, he and his brother received calls from one of the 23, the person who had been in charge of hiring the transportation.

He told them that they had been kidnapped and that they were asking for 60,000 pesos for each one.

They found so many calls strange - the communications continued until Wednesday - from someone who was supposedly kidnapped.

Be that as it may, González denounced the facts before the Guanajuato Prosecutor's Office.

On Wednesday, the General Secretary of the Government, Libia Dennise, took charge of the case.

She posted a message on her Twitter account, in which she said: "Since yesterday we have been in coordination with the authorities of San Luis Potosí and we will maintain close collaboration until we can locate them."

At the same time, the San Luis Prosecutor's Office announced the rescue of 16 people that she had found wandering along a highway in Matehuala.

Investigators made the connection and dismissed the case, at least partially.

The situation changed as the hours passed, when in San Luis they realized that one thing had nothing to do with the other.

The 16 people who had appeared on a highway in Matehuala came from the State of Mexico.

They were traveling in similar vans, hence the confusion, and had been intercepted by a criminal group.

They robbed them and left them there.

But the 23, apparently all men, as reported by the newspaper AM, from León, in Guanajuato, still do not appear.

At dawn, the Guanajuato Public Security Secretariat announced the sending of two helicopters to San Luis Potosí, to support the search efforts.

The devices are equipped with infrared equipment to be able to detect people in the dark.

The disappearance of the 23 occurs in the middle of a vacation break in Mexico and has hardly had an impact.

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EL PAÍS México