|
Only have a minute? Listen instead
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Two Hidalgo County residents are suing Autobuses Ejecutivos and its related companies after they were kidnapped at gunpoint when traveling through Mexico in late May.
The lawsuit alleges that the two residents have “experienced physical pain, severe emotional distress” and “mental anguish” once they were kidnapped and held for ransom on May 29.
Additionally, the defendants, which also include Omex VIP, Omnibus, Omnibus Express, Bus Investors and Dos Naciones, are accused of failing to report the kidnapping to authorities and failing to protect its customers.
The plaintiffs are now seeking over $1 million in damages. The lawsuit was filed Tuesday.
According to the lawsuit, “the defendants were aware that their passengers were being regularly kidnapped” at gunpoint, were being beaten and held for ransom, but didn’t warn their customers.
“They knew the danger existed, while being transported in their buses, and had a duty to warn and did not,” the lawsuit states.
The document goes on to say that the defendants failed to make traveling in their buses safe despite having the legal “duty to care” which they are accused of breaching.
The lawsuit alleges they neglected this duty by not equipping their buses with cameras or video surveillance, by not having GPS tracking and by not having radio communication.
The lawsuit also alleges that the defendants are “grossly indifferent to customers’ … private information” so much so that “kidnappings [occur] on a regular basis.”
“Defendants’ policy of negligent security led to frequently being targeted by criminals due to the fact that defendants do not resist, defendants freely open the bus door, defendants do not try to stop the assailants, defendants do nothing to assist the bus passengers and defendants do not report to police that its passengers have been kidnapped at gunpoint and held for ransom,” the lawsuit said.
According to the United States Department of State’s website, “violent crime – such as homicide, kidnapping, carjacking, and robbery – is widespread and common in Mexico.”
Tamaulipas, the Mexican State closest to McAllen which is where the bus tickets were purchased, is classified as a “Do Not Travel” area due to crime and kidnapping.
The travel advisories were made in August of last year.
In June of this year, the U.S. Consulate in Matamoros warned of kidnappings targeting Americans on intercity buses in Reynosa.
