The Offer Sounds Good | Translation

► Click here to return to the episode official page, or here to see all the episodes.

► We’re here. To stay. Our commitment to Latin America and Latino communities in the United States remains. We’ve accomplished so much together, but there are still many more stories to tell. Support our journalism here.

►Do you listen Radio Ambulante to improve your Spanish? We have something extra for you: try our app, designed for Spanish learners who want to study with our episodes.

---

[Daniel Alarcón]: This is Radio Ambulante, I’m Daniel Alarcón.

The stories of these two Colombian women start almost the same way: their husbands, both retired military men around 45 years old, received a job offer in mid-2023.

[Adriana]: Well, one day he just told me that he was being offered a job in Mexico, and I said, “What do you mean? A job doing what?”

[Jenny]: He told me, “It’s a great opportunity because it’s about providing security for citrus plantations.” I told him, “I don’t agree, because we waited so long for your pension so we could finally be together, and now you want to keep working in the same kind of situation?”

[Daniel]: After more than 20 years of service—constantly moving to different areas of the country, fighting through the toughest years of the Colombian conflict, and surviving the risk of leaving their wives widowed and their children fatherless—going back to work, and in another country, didn’t seem like a good idea. It wasn’t that they were in serious financial trouble, but even though they had a pension from their years in the military, it was much less than the salary they earned while on active duty. So, making around $2,000 a month just for guarding some citrus crops… didn’t sound too bad. The promise was that they would be back in Colombia in six months.

[Adriana]: “It’s only for six months. Don’t worry, love. Plus, it’ll help us pay off our debts. Look, I’ve done the math with God’s help, and I’ll support you so you can start your own business.”

[Jenny]: He told me to see it as a great opportunity for stability, that he was doing it for our son’s university expenses, and that was it. And that, actually, we’d be able to take a vacation with the extra money. And when someone mentions a vacation, you’re basically already packing your bags, right?

[Daniel]: There weren’t many more details. The offer had come at different times through WhatsApp groups for retired military personnel. They were promised a formal job contract, and some colleagues who were already working there recommended taking the opportunity.

[Jenny]: So, I didn’t really see a problem with it because I thought, “Well, I’m pressuring him to stay home, but if he’s only going for six months, why not wait those six months?”

[Adriana]: I started to believe it was legitimate, and I even began praying to God that if this was a good opportunity for us, then everything would work out.

[Daniel]: In just a few months, everything fell into place. Both of them ended up traveling, although at different times. Both arrived in Mexico City, both had to travel several hours from the capital to where the crops were supposed to be, and both started working with enthusiasm.

[Jenny]: But if I had known what was going to happen later, I would have been the first obstacle preventing my husband from going there.

[Adriana]: Why didn’t I tell him not to go? Why didn’t I insist that he stay? You know what I mean?

[Daniel]: After the break, David Trujillo, our senior producer, continues the story.

[Daniel]: We’re back on Radio Ambulante. Before we continue, a clarification: we changed the names of the people in this story for security reasons.

Okay, here’s David.

[David Trujillo]: Felipe retired from the army in 2019 at the rank of Staff Sergeant at 42 years old. He and his wife, Adriana, had been together since they were teenagers. They had a young daughter and were looking forward to resting after more than two decades of service.

But the small pension he received disrupted their new plans—paying off debts, starting a business, buying a car. He felt energetic enough to keep working and earn more money, so he started taking on different jobs.

Then, in mid-2023, the offer came through the WhatsApp group for retired military personnel: a job in Mexico guarding lemon plantations.

[Adriana]: And I thought, “Lemons? Who needs security for lemons? That’s really weird.” But he said, “Yes, it’s different in Mexico. Over there, the government doesn’t pay for security companies to protect businesses. Instead, each business owner has to hire their own security team.”

[David]: Felipe insisted it was a good offer, that it was worth it.

[Adriana]: “But are you sure it’s safe?” He told me yes, that everything was legal, that he had a contract and the proper paperwork for immigration, that everything was in order.

[David]: Everything seemed legitimate. So Felipe accepted and began the process. Adriana doesn’t know exactly what it involved because he handled everything himself without telling her much. She just remembers that one day, around July, Felipe came home with a bunch of documents, sat on the bed, and started showing them to her. Adriana took photos of some letters—one from a Colombian security company and another from a Mexican one. They had Felipe’s information and were meant to be presented during the immigration process. The documents explained that he was traveling to receive training as part of a partnership between the two companies. There was also a commercial registration for the Colombian company.

Felipe bought his plane ticket for early September 2023. He would arrive in Mexico City, and someone would pick him up at the airport to take him to his job site.

Adriana clearly remembers September 5, the day they said goodbye at the airport. His flight was at 10:30 p.m. She went with him. When it was time to say goodbye, she repeated something she had always told him since his time in the military.

[Adriana]: I told him, “Love, if you ever feel like your life is in danger, just run. Don’t think twice. Just get out of there. But don’t leave me alone.” And he laughed and said, “Yes, love, I know. Don’t worry, it’s only six months. I’ll call you every day.”

[David]: They gave each other one last hug, and Adriana watched him walk toward the immigration line until she couldn’t see him anymore.

A few hours later, in the early morning, Felipe texted her to say he had arrived safely, but the person who was supposed to pick him up wasn’t answering. Since he didn’t know anyone and had nowhere to go, he decided to stay at the airport until morning.

In the morning, they finally contacted him. Without giving any explanation, they told him they couldn’t pick him up and that the job wasn’t in Mexico City. He would have to take a bus on his own to get to another location several hours away. He did as they said.

From what Adriana understood, he first arrived at a hotel where other workers were staying. A week later, he called her from a beach, saying he was escorting his bosses and their families on vacation. He seemed happy. A few days later, during a video call, Adriana briefly saw what she assumed were citrus plantations in the background. According to Felipe, his boss had promised to help him get documents to stay in Mexico. Everything seemed to be going well.

But things changed quickly.

First, Felipe started calling from different numbers, saying his phone had been stolen. Communication became less frequent and harder to understand. And when they did talk, Adriana noticed he only asked basic questions about how everyone was doing. Sometimes, the signal was terrible, and he spoke more softly than usual.

[Adriana]: One time, during a call, I asked, “Love, why are you speaking like that?” He just said, “Because. Don’t ask anything.” I asked, “But why?” And he snapped, “Just don’t ask anything!” It was really strange.

[David]: It got even stranger when, during a video call, she saw he had lost a lot of weight. It had only been a month since he left, and it didn’t make sense for him to have lost so much so fast. But she had to hide her concern because they had agreed she wouldn’t ask questions. She decided to wait until the next call.

[Adriana]: So I prepared. On a piece of paper, with a marker, I wrote: “Love, I don’t want you to stay there anymore. I want you to come back now.”

[David]: While they were talking, she held up the message in front of the camera so he could read it.

[Adriana]: He looked at it and stayed silent. He didn’t say anything.

[David]: Another thing that worried Adriana was that Felipe had stopped contacting his best friend. His friend, also a retired soldier, had been expecting details about the job so he could go too.

So Adriana had the idea that her friend could accompany her during one of Felipe’s calls. Maybe he could get more information out of him. The friend agreed, and after talking to him, Adriana handed him the phone so they could speak. The conversation didn’t last long either, but when it ended, she anxiously asked what Felipe had said—whether he was finally going to help him get to Mexico.

[Adriana]: He told me, like, no, that this wasn’t for me. And I was like, what do you mean? He just said no, I don’t know. That he didn’t want him to go there.

[David]: That it wasn’t for him? That he didn’t want him to go there? Everything was very confusing. The only clear thing was that there was no sign that Felipe was okay. Adriana felt guilty.

[Adriana]: I was already feeling like it had been a bad idea for him to go. And after November 28, he never contacted me again.

[David]: At first, Adriana thought he had no signal. She was already used to those times when Felipe was in the military and went days without responding, but this was different. He always warned her when he would be unreachable, and by late December, a month had passed, and he still hadn’t called.

[Adriana]: And I was like, this has been too long, and I know he would have done everything possible to call. I mean, knowing him, I’m sure he would have reached out. So then I started to panic, I couldn’t sleep. What do I do? Who can tell me something?

[David]: She started searching the numbers Felipe had called her from. Even though he had warned her not to return the calls, Adriana had no choice. Someone answered one of them. It was a man who introduced himself as Veracruz, and he had a Colombian accent. That reassured her a little because it felt familiar. Adriana introduced herself, told him she was Felipe’s wife, and gave his full name.

[Adriana]: Then he said, “Who?” No, we don’t know people here by their names. And I was like, what do you mean you don’t know them by name? That’s when things started getting weird. He said, “No, when they get here, we give them a nickname.” That made me angry. I sent him a picture of Felipe and said, “This is him. He’s my husband.” Then he said, “Oh, right, I remember now. Yes, yes, a very nice man. Oh, but look, I was his direct boss. But no, he doesn’t work with me anymore. He switched companies.”

[David]: Every explanation was stranger than the last. Felipe would have told her if he had made a decision like that.

[Adriana]: What do you mean he switched companies? Why didn’t he tell me? Then he said, “Oh, that, I don’t know. I don’t know how you two handled things.” That’s how he answered me. So I asked, “What do I do then? Because look, you’re the only contact I have from there. I need to know about my husband. I’m desperate. Please help me.” Then that bastard told me, “Yes, don’t worry, look, out of kindness, because this is no longer my responsibility, I’ll find out for you.” So he told me to wait while he checked.

[David]: Two days later, Veracruz contacted her.

[Adriana]: He said, “Look, ma’am, they told me that two Colombians are missing, but we don’t know who they are.” I immediately started crying and asked, “What do you mean, missing? Missing where, how?” He said, “No, I don’t know, I don’t know.” And I begged him, “Please help me, find out what company he switched to so I can call and ask about him. What do you mean, missing?” He just kept saying, “I don’t know, I don’t know.”

[David]: Veracruz only dodged her questions, saying he didn’t know which security company it was because there were many like it, and that he couldn’t go to the area where the two Colombians had supposedly disappeared because it was too dangerous. But once again, he promised to find out and told her to wait.

Meanwhile, Adriana only told Felipe’s sister what was happening. She didn’t want to scare the rest of the family without being sure or burden them with what she was going through.

[Adriana]: Imagine, I wasn’t sleeping, I wasn’t eating. I did nothing but pray to God. It seemed so strange to me—missing? What do you mean?

[David]: She was desperate. Every day she messaged Veracruz.

[Adriana]: “Good morning, Mr. Veracruz, how are you? Sorry for bothering you so much. Have you heard anything about my husband?” I tried to soften his heart because he was my only contact. I pleaded with him, begged him to help me, not to leave me like this. But all he ever said was, “Yes, don’t worry, I’ll help you.” He even told me he had paid someone to go check who the two missing men were and what had happened.

[David]: Adriana didn’t question him further. She didn’t want him to stop responding, but nothing Veracruz said made sense.

[Adriana]: I thought, this is so strange… I mean, fine, he sent someone. But does the other guy not have a phone either? Does he really have to walk there and back just to report? Can’t he call? This man was messing with me badly because it was obvious he knew what had happened.

[David]: For over a month, Veracruz kept giving her vague answers and increasingly bizarre explanations. But Adriana had no choice but to keep insisting, hoping he might slip up and give her some real information.

[Adriana]: I was alone. I had no contacts, nothing. My only way of finding out anything was through that Veracruz guy. I was glued to my phone, waiting for it to ring, trying to figure out what to do.

[David]: The idea came to her in early February when she went through the list of numbers Felipe had called her from again. In one of those calls, he had mentioned being in a store and using the owner’s phone. So Adriana messaged that number, pleading for information about her husband. The person replied the next day. He said he remembered Felipe and would ask a contact if they knew anything.

On February 10, Adriana messaged again, and the person responded with devastating news.

[Adriana]: He told me, “Look, this morning they got back to me with bad news: your husband has passed away. I’m so sorry for your loss.” That’s what he wrote.

[David]: Desperate, she contacted Veracruz again, begging him to finally tell her the truth.

[Adriana]: Then he called me back and said, “Look, ma’am, unfortunately, I have to tell you it’s true. They confirmed it.” And I asked, “But why? I don’t understand anything. What happened?” He said, “Don’t worry, he died fighting.” “Fighting who?” I asked. “I don’t understand—fighting who?” I kept asking, “Are you sure it’s him?” He said, “Yes, yes, there are videos.” I told him, “Send them to me, send them to me.” He said, “Don’t worry, we’ll help repatriate his body.”

[David]: If he supposedly wasn’t Felipe’s boss anymore, if Felipe had nothing to do with that company anymore, why would he be handling the repatriation? But Adriana was too shocked to think about that.

[Adriana]: My life completely reset. Saying it is one thing, but living it is another. No one understands until they experience it. I have no motivation. It’s like my smile was erased.

[David]: In the end, Veracruz told her that he had been buried in a pantheon and sent her some coordinates and photos.

[Adriana]: He sent me some pictures of a mountain with what looked like graves and wreaths of flowers, like a mass grave. But obviously, that’s not a cemetery. I don’t know what they mean by “pantheon.”

[David]: Even though she kept asking for the supposed videos, Veracruz kept making excuses—until he blocked her.

[David]: With the little and confusing information she had, Adriana couldn’t even begin to grieve. It seemed too rushed. She needed certainty—something. So she started investigating within Felipe’s ex-military circle…

[David]: With the very little and confusing information she had, Adriana couldn’t even begin to grieve. It felt too rushed. She needed certainty… something. So she started investigating within Felipe’s circle of former military colleagues. That’s how she found out that one of them, Jorge, had also traveled to Mexico for the same job offer around the same time.

She found his profile on Facebook and began messaging people who reacted to his posts. By the end of February, she managed to contact his wife, Jenny—the other woman we heard at the beginning. Here she is.

[Jenny]: I have a cousin, and he calls me mona (blondie). He told me, “Look, there’s a lady who’s insisting a lot that she needs to talk to you.” So I went to a phone booth and called from there, because in situations like this, you just don’t trust anyone.

[Adriana]: She was wary, and so was I.

[Jenny]: Then she told me that her husband was missing.

[Adriana]: She asked me since when. I told her I hadn’t heard from him since… since November, and that the only person who might know something was her husband. That’s when she told me, “No, my husband is missing too.”

[Daniel]: A quick break, and we’ll be back.

[Daniel]: We’re back on Radio Ambulante. David Trujillo continues the story.

[David]: Adriana and Jenny stayed in contact after that first call, working together to find their husbands. By that time, Jenny had already reported Jorge’s disappearance to the prosecutor’s office. Like Felipe, he had retired from the military after more than two decades, reaching the rank of First Sergeant. He took a few months off before starting work in private security companies. He did that for a few years until, in mid-2023, he received the job offer to work in Mexico. At that time, he was 45 years old and living in Medellín with Jenny and their teenage son.

Jorge was interested in the offer and quickly took care of the paperwork. He was given an ID badge from the security company in Medellín and told Jenny that his employment contract was on his computer. She never saw it.

In early September, a friend of his, Felipe, had gone for the same job. From Mexico, he was encouraging Jorge to go, because at the time, the offer seemed to be living up to expectations.

[Jenny]: He told him, “Yes, come, it’s really good. They provide food, housing—everything. Our salary is all free, and we can send money home.” So Jorge got really excited because they were making it sound like a great opportunity.

[David]: Jorge traveled on September 29, two weeks after Felipe. When he arrived in Mexico City, he had no trouble getting through immigration. The only problem at the time was that no one was there to pick him up and take him to his workplace. So he had to take a bus and travel for several hours.

[David]: Jenny and Jorge spoke every day when he wasn’t working. Their communication was always good. From the beginning, he showed Jenny the apartment he shared with other Colombians, his daily routine, and in the background, the farmland.

[Jenny]: I could see lots of lemon trees, avocados, so many oranges—way too many oranges. The place was really beautiful.

[David]: Jorge seemed really motivated about the job. He was able to save part of his salary and send the rest to Jenny. Everything was going well. They even started making plans to stay there permanently.

[Jenny]: He was very happy because he said his boss really liked him. He told him that he would help them get residency in Mexico so the family could move there. He said that if our son was well-behaved, he could get a job too, and so could I.

[David]: In other words, everything seemed perfect. Jenny remembers that on Christmas, Jorge showed her over a video call the celebration they were having.

[Jenny]: He told me the boss had treated them very well, that he had arranged a really nice Christmas dinner on December 24, that they had all celebrated together, and that they had learned about each other’s cultures because everyone was gathered there. He showed me the barbecue, and his colleagues waved at the camera. Everything seemed so normal.

[David]: And there was another important detail: Jenny did know exactly where her husband was. He had told her. First, the name of the city: Apatzingán.

[Jenny]: Then, in the background, I heard a colleague say, “This is Michoacán.”

Michoacán State.

[David]: The last call Jenny received from Jorge was on January 1, 2024. He told her that he had to move to another location for work and not to worry, that he would call her in two days.

[Jenny]: But he didn’t call on January 3, or on the 4th, or the 5th. But on January 6, I did receive a call that changed my life—like something straight out of a soap opera.

[David]: It was a man with a Colombian accent. He asked if she was Jorge’s wife. At first, Jenny didn’t answer; she wanted to know who he was first. But after so much insistence and the anxiety of not hearing from Jorge, she told the man that yes, she was his wife.

[Jenny]: He kept hesitating, and I said, “Come on, I need to know something.” And he said, “Ma’am, hasn’t anyone from Mexico called you to tell you that your husband died in combat?” And I was like, “What? He died in what? He wasn’t supposed to be in any combat—he was just guarding citrus plantations.” And he replied, “Exactly, because there was combat in those plantations.”

[Jenny]: I started crying, completely desperate. I felt this terrible uncertainty. I couldn’t say a word. I never thought I’d be so afraid of becoming a widow so suddenly.

[David]: Jenny was so overwhelmed that she hung up. Though she later tried to call back, the man never answered. So she tried calling other numbers Jorge had given her in case anything happened. The next day, someone finally answered—the person who was supposedly his boss. He also had a Colombian accent. It was the same “Veracruz” that Adriana had spoken to. After much insistence, Veracruz confirmed the information and told her that a sniper had killed Jorge during combat.

[Jenny]: I cried and begged him to take a photo or a video to prove it was really my husband, that I would be able to recognize him. But he said no, that it was forbidden, that they weren’t allowed to do that.

[David]: Then he hung up. Later, she got a third call. This time, it was a Mexican man. He told her to stop crying because she was going to receive compensation.

[Jenny]: So I told him, “How dare you? What compensation? No amount of money can replace the life of a loved one, especially my husband.” He hung up on me and never answered again.

[David]: And even when Jenny managed to speak with the retired soldier who had offered Jorge the job via the WhatsApp group, she couldn’t get any clearer answers. Quite the opposite. From the start, he told her not to contact those people in Mexico again.

[Jenny]: He told me, “It’s better not to fight with those people.” And I was like, “What do you mean, ‘those people’? I don’t understand anything. They’ve left me in the dark.” Then he said, “Ma’am, it’s better if you don’t investigate. Just let it go.” I told him, “No, I’m not looking for a lost piece of bread. The one who’s missing is my husband.”

[David]: And she wasn’t going to just sit idly by. So she reported Jorge’s case to the prosecutor’s office. Jenny handed over all the information she had—photos, chats, locations, contacts… everything. And when she spoke with Adriana, she advised her to do the same and to have both cases included in the same investigation file.

También los reportaron al Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores que, a su vez, lo comunicó al consulado colombiano en México. Según lo que me dijeron en el Ministerio, desde el momento en que recibieron las denuncias las llevaron a las entidades encargadas en Michoacán, que terminaron contactando a Adriana y a Jenny. Abrieron los expedientes, tomaron sus declaraciones, recibieron la información que tenían e hicieron carteles de “Se busca” para divulgarlos.  

They were also reported to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which, in turn, communicated it to the Colombian consulate in Mexico. According to what I was told at the Ministry, as soon as they received the complaints, they forwarded them to the relevant authorities in Michoacán, who ended up contacting Adriana and Jenny. They opened case files, took their statements, gathered the information they had, and created “Wanted” posters to spread the word.

On March 22, 2024, Jenny and Adriana learned about another case of a former Colombian soldier in Mexico…

[Jenny]: The woman actually went to the media, um, desperately asking for help.

[Jelen]: Since last year, he had been planning to go to Mexico because a friend of his who was already there invited him and told him they would be working in security.

[David]: According to what she said, her husband, Mario, received the same job offer to guard citrus crops in Mexico, with the promise of returning in six months…

She also said that Mario had traveled a week ago.

[Jelen]: On March 12, he left Bogotá airport for Medellín and then flew from Medellín to Mexico City. From Mexico City, he traveled to the state of Michoacán.

[David]: But there was something different about this story: the night before, Mario had messaged her.

[Jelen]: And he told me that nothing they had promised him was true and that his principles didn’t allow him to stay there. So he escaped. Right now, he’s in the mountains of southern Mexico, trying to survive and flee from the people who took him. I don’t know what to do. I… I’ve gathered strength. I’m very scared, and I fear for his life and that he won’t make it. I know he’s strong and a warrior, and he’s been trying to survive for four days now. Please, I ask you to make this video go viral and for Colombian authorities to help us. Thank you.

[David]: Adriana and Jenny immediately contacted her, but she didn’t want to speak with us for this story. Through her, they managed to reach another woman in a very similar situation: her husband, a close friend of Mario, had disappeared in Mexico under the same circumstances. He had traveled on September 12, 2023, and the last time they spoke was on March 13, 2024.

But the one who did agree to an interview over the phone, from a place he didn’t disclose, was Mario himself.

Right away, he made it clear that everything had started with a lie.

[Mario]: It’s a scam. It’s all a lie.

[David]: Two days after his wife’s video, Mexican authorities managed to rescue him in a rural area of Michoacán. He was in very poor physical condition, but he was alive. He had survived after being on the run for six days.

What he had seen there was nothing like what he had been promised.

[Mario]: It’s all a setup they make up so that people fall for it and travel, convinced that they are really going to work for citrus companies. But it’s all a scheme.

[Daniel]: After the break, Mario’s story.

[Daniel]: We’re back on Radio Ambulante. David Trujillo continues telling us the story.

[David]: Mario’s story is similar: in his 40s, 24 years of service in the army, ranked as first sergeant, four children, and the same job offer that motivated him amid the frustration of his retirement.

[Mario]: I needed to work, to feel active, because I still have health, breath, and life. And it seemed like a good opportunity. I saw nothing wrong with it because it was supposed to be security work.

[David]: A military friend who was already there encouraged him to travel. Mario discussed it with his wife, and she told him that if he felt he needed to do it, she would support him. He made up his mind. He started the paperwork. They never mentioned a contract, but they promised that everything would be arranged once he was there. He traveled on March 12, 2024, and when he arrived, he was received. It was the same person we already mentioned: Veracruz.

[Mario]: I’d say he was around 40, maybe 40 or 41 years old. He didn’t look particularly good or bad—just very average. Very normal. At least with me, he was never rude or mistreated me. No. He always received me or treated me kindly.

[David]: He told him he had to take a bus to Michoacán. Once there, a taxi driver picked him up and took him to a remote rural area. There, another man received him and took him to the house where he would stay. There were three beds, a messy kitchen, and belongings from other people—probably coworkers—but he never saw them. He was given no further instructions, only that from then on, he would be called by a different name and should wait there until told what to do.

The next afternoon, they told him to get ready to go to work. They took him to a mountain.

[Mario]: And when we got there, well, yes, a group of people arrived. A lot of people. I don’t know, 30, 40, 50 armed men with rifles, machine guns in high-end, armored trucks, looking like anything but police, army, or decent people.

[David]: They got out of the trucks and started handing out weapons. Mario was given a .50 caliber machine gun. Probably a Barrett .50 or a Browning M2. For those of us who don’t know much about this, that’s one of the big… and heavy… long-barreled weapons. Snipers use them for their precision and long range. The U.S. military uses them in wars—not citrus farm guards.

[Mario]: That’s when I realized that what they had told me wasn’t true… that it wasn’t legal.

[David]: Mario felt fear, but he didn’t react. He took the machine gun, and they put him in one of the trucks, not knowing where they were taking him. They didn’t explain any details, but there wasn’t much to understand: he would have to shoot… just that, shoot at enemies who were equally or more heavily armed. This was surely related to drug trafficking and that bloody, complex war that appeared in the news.

[Mario]: It’s a moment where you don’t think, honestly. It’s a moment where your mind goes blank, and you… you don’t reason, you don’t think.

[David]: Fortunately, there were no confrontations that day. He just spent the day there, waiting for enemies who never came. At night, they took him back to the house where he was staying. And as he tried to process what had happened, he realized that he didn’t want to be there.

[Mario]: This was not what I was looking for in my life, and it went against my principles. I had served a country legally for over 20 years only to end up as a thug, just another criminal for a Mexican drug cartel—that was not within my principles or in my plans for my life.

[David]: He had to leave, plain and simple. He didn’t need to explain anything. He contacted the same taxi driver who had dropped him off at that house and asked him to take him back to the bus station. But he didn’t count on the fact that this person worked for them—and reported him to Veracruz.

[Mario]: And he called me, asking how come I was leaving and why I was leaving, that I couldn’t leave anymore, that what was wrong with me? That there was only one way out of there and that I already knew what it was—dead. He made it very clear to me that day. No, it’s not in their interest for anyone to leave there alive.

[David]: They had just told him he was kidnapped under threat of death. Mario says that fear is always present, but after so many years in the army and having gone through terrifying situations, he learned to be very methodical and calculated. The first thing he knew at that moment was that he couldn’t fight Veracruz.

[Mario]: So I told him, “Alright, fine, if there’s no other option, then let’s work.”

[David]: But his plan was something else… and much riskier.

[David]: Mario didn’t tell anyone, not even his wife. He always told her everything was fine, but the truth was that ever since Veracruz found out he wanted to leave, they had assigned men to watch him at all times. So, without raising suspicion, Mario used the compass on his phone to determine the cardinal points. Then he checked a map of Mexico and looked for a somewhat familiar nearby city. He spotted Acapulco, more than 500 km to the south, and decided he had to head there.

It didn’t take more than a week for Mario to find the perfect opportunity. Up until that point, he hadn’t had to shoot or kill anyone, but he knew it would happen sooner or later. It was Sunday night. He and some other men were told they were going to attack some enemies. Mario took a camouflaged backpack, military boots, and an AK-47 rifle. They started walking.

About two hours passed, and as they were moving through the darkness and among crops, Mario decided to start his plan. He quickly hid behind a tree and waited for the other soldiers to advance. He remained very still in the dark and waited a few minutes in case they came back looking for him. When he no longer heard anything, he turned off his phone in case they tried to track him and to save battery, and he started running south. He had no idea how long the journey would last, but he was used to it.

[Mario]: In the Army, I had to go through many things, many. Survive many things, honestly. If I hadn’t learned those things in the army, I wouldn’t have made it out of there, truly. Over there, a regular person, a civilian without basic military knowledge, doesn’t make it out alive. They don’t survive.

[David]: The terrain was difficult to move through because it was very mountainous. There were no houses or signs of people, but even if someone did appear, Mario couldn’t trust anyone. During the day, the temperatures were extremely high. There wasn’t much vegetation, just miles and miles of lemon trees that didn’t provide much shade. Because of that, from the very beginning, Mario only moved at night and in the early hours of the morning. He tried to stay close to a stream to have water and avoid dehydration. Occasionally, he would grab some lemons and drink the juice. No food.

If they found him, they would kill him. He knew that for sure. So he also couldn’t stay in one place for too long. Sometimes he tried to lie down on the ground and sleep for about an hour, but the heat during the day was unbearable, and at night, the urgency to keep moving didn’t let him rest.

On the fourth day of his journey, when he felt a little safer, he turned on his phone and messaged his wife, telling her about the situation. He asked her to find help to get him out of there, but in the meantime, he would keep walking and explained the route he was taking. He promised to contact her again in a few days. Then he turned off his phone.

That was when his wife’s video pleading for help was released. Thanks to that, she was able to get in touch with some Colombian organizations in Mexico and with local authorities to rescue him.

Mario kept walking south, getting weaker with each step. On the sixth day after escaping, he turned his phone back on and messaged his wife, asking if they were already looking for him. She responded yes, told him to send his exact location, and instructed him not to move. They agreed on a code word that the rescuers would say to confirm they were legitimate.

Mario stayed put at that spot, but hidden. He no longer had the strength to run.

[Mario]: I had already run out of water because I had to move away from the water source. So I was already dehydrated… I was doing really bad, really bad. With the lack of sleep, food, I had developed a fever.

[David]: He doesn’t know what time it was, as he had lost track of time, but he believes he was at that spot for more than half a day. At one point, he started hearing the agreed-upon code word.

[Mario]: When I heard what my wife and I had arranged, I felt relief because I knew they had found me or were close, although I didn’t even have the strength to talk because I was so thirsty and dehydrated, lying on the ground. Well, they reached the spot, found me, hydrated me, carried me, took me to the Federal Guard’s truck, and then drove me to Morelia.

[David]: To Morelia, the capital of Michoacán. There, the authorities took his fingerprints and statement. They also provided first aid, ran medical tests, and gave him intravenous fluids. He was finally able to eat, shower, and sleep.

The next day, he began the process with the National Migration Institute. They offered to send him back to Colombia immediately. And so he did. Three days later, he reunited with his family.

According to Mario, the Colombian authorities also sought him out to take his statement. They offered him protection and even to arrange political asylum in another country. Although he accepted, he says they stopped communicating with him by the fourth day. The ones who did call him back were the people who had kidnapped him in Mexico.

[Mario]: They said they would find me, that I wouldn’t be able to hide, that they would destroy everything I had, even my pets. I had to change houses, change municipalities, change phone numbers, change everything. Basically, start life over again.

[David]: And just as he had planned since returning to Colombia, he left for another country on his own. He claims the promises made by the Colombian authorities were never fulfilled.

He couldn’t tell Adriana and Jenny anything about their husbands. He never saw them. The friend who convinced him to travel only spoke to him on his first day in Mexico. After that, he never answered again. Today, he is also missing, and his wife was the one who Adriana and Jenny contacted to search for their husbands together.

Now that he lives in another country, Mario feels safer, but he has no doubt that these types of recruitments continue and that his fellow ex-military members still fall for the deception. And he’s right—it’s a massive criminal network…

Since the late 2000s, amid the war on drugs, Michoacán has become a hub for criminal activities and violence. Today, according to authorities, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, the most powerful organized crime group in Mexico, is trying to take full control of Michoacán, constantly fighting against other cartels, self-defense groups, and the state. To do this, they not only have economic power but also military strength.

I spoke with Carlos Arrieta (this is his real name). He is a journalist and has been investigating the violence in this part of Mexico for many years.

[Carlos]: We’re talking about them using everything from handguns to assault rifles, .50 caliber Barretts, Miniguns, drones to drop explosives, for intelligence operations. In short, they are very, very well-armed.

[David]: Carlos told me that in September 2024, while covering a cartel attack on a town, he discovered that one of their mercenaries had surrendered to the authorities. To his surprise, this man was a former Colombian soldier. Carlos interviewed him.

[Carlos]: I asked him to tell me how it happened. He confirmed that he was brought to Mexico through deception by a Colombian network linked to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and that there is collusion with airports and Mexican authorities as well.

[David]: He continued investigating, and in just over a month, he found five other identical cases of people who had been recruited through lies and by force. They assured him that many of their fellow soldiers had been killed in combat.

Carlos published his investigation in El Universal, in which he explains how the Jalisco New Generation Cartel is building an army not only with former Colombian military personnel but also with ex-guerrilla fighters from the FARC. They have even begun replicating methods used during the Colombian conflict, such as anti-personnel mines.

[Carlos]: The idea is to form an army of at least 300 Colombians, to make it an elite force with people experienced in the use of weapons, in the manufacture and handling of explosives. People with the kind of expertise that comes from having served in the military in Colombia.

[David]: Authorities know what is happening, but controlling this recruitment is very difficult—even identifying it—because these people enter the country with all their documents in order. According to Carlos’ investigation, there is complicity from officials within Mexico’s Secretariat of Foreign Affairs and the National Institute of Migration.

But this problem extends beyond just that country.

[Carlos]: This is something that both the Mexican and Colombian governments will have to take very seriously, because unauthorized jets take off from there, jets carrying armed men, jets transporting explosive materials to Mexico, and there is complicity from Colombian government officials as well.

[David]: When I contacted Colombia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to ask about progress in the search for the missing persons, they clarified that so far, and I quote, “no results have been obtained in locating the mentioned citizens.” They insisted that they will continue providing institutional support to their families and will share any updated information regarding the case.

But the families still have not received that information. According to what Adriana and Jenny told me, the cases in the Colombian Prosecutor’s Office have gone through multiple investigators and departments. They even changed the crime classification from enforced disappearance to human trafficking.

At the time of publishing this story, the Colombian Prosecutor’s Office was unable to provide information about the investigations because the cases are still in the inquiry stage. This means that, depending on the evidence they gather, they can still decide whether to open a criminal case or close it definitively.

And the Michoacán State Search Commission did not give any information either. Adriana and Jenny told me that this institution found mass graves in the area with remains that could be those of their husbands. They were then asked to send DNA samples from their children to compare them with those remains. They completed the process in early 2024 through the Colombian Prosecutor’s Office, but more than a year later, the tests have yet to arrive in Mexico.

More than a year has passed since the disappearance of these former Colombian soldiers. Although Adriana and Jenny have tried to move on with their lives, the anguish remains… and the process of re-victimization only deepens that feeling.

[Jenny]: At this point in life, you just need to accept it—whether they are alive or dead—but at least to have certainty. To be able to say, yes, with certainty, he is alive. Yes, with certainty, he is dead.

[Adriana]: At this stage, the only thing you want is peace, for them to be found… whether they are dead or alive, but to be found. And to be able to… to be at peace and say, “Okay, he is there,” to grieve properly. But like this, we can’t.

[Daniel]: At this moment, Colombian and Mexican authorities have yet to provide answers to the three women searching for their missing husbands under similar circumstances in Michoacán.

In recent years, several cases have been reported of former Colombian soldiers being hired as mercenaries in conflicts such as those in Ukraine or South Sudan. The main motivation is money, but some claim they were deceived.

In other cases, they have ended up in legal trouble, like the 17 involved in the assassination of Haiti’s president in 2021. Or the two ex-soldiers who were fighting in Ukraine and disappeared when returning to Colombia. Weeks later, their families learned from a news outlet that they had been captured in Venezuela, extradited to Russia, and imprisoned for hostilities against their army.

David Trujillo is a senior producer at Radio Ambulante. He lives in Bogotá. This story was edited by Camila Segura and me. Desirée Yépez did the fact-checking. Sound design and music by Andrés Azpiri.

The rest of the Radio Ambulante team includes Paola Alean, Adriana Bernal, Aneris Casassus, Diego Corzo, Emilia Erbetta, Camilo Jiménez Santofimio, Melisa Rabanales, Natalia Ramírez, Barbara Sawhill, Bruno Scelza, Luis Fernando Vargas, and Elsa Liliana Ulloa.

Carolina Guerrero is the CEO.

Radio Ambulante is a podcast from Radio Ambulante Estudios, produced and mixed using Hindenburg PRO.

If you enjoyed this episode and want us to continue producing independent journalism about Latin America, support us through Deambulantes, our membership program. Visit radioambulante.org/donar and help us keep telling the region’s stories.

Radio Ambulante tells the stories of Latin America. I’m Daniel Alarcón. Thanks for listening.