TEXAS — The three Peñitas women missing in Mexico are not American citizens, according to a family member who spoke out about the terrible experience. Two sisters from Texas and a friend went missing after they crossed the border last month to sell clothes at a flea market, U.S authorities said on March 10. 

Despite her anguish, 27-year-old Maria Guadalupe Ramírez tries to go on with normal life. Her mom, Marina Perez Rios, 48; her aunt, Maritza Perez Rios, 47; and family friend Dora Alicia Cervantes Saenz, 53, have been missing for almost three weeks. They crossed the border for what seemed a regular trip to Montemorelos, Nuevo León, Mexico.

“They would go every other weekend to sell clothing to get a little income. My mom had just got surgery, so she wasn’t working. She was very happy to be out there,” said Ramírez when we met her at her home after work.

She asked us not to show her face and to look away from the camera because she is concerned for her safety.

“We used to tell her all the time that it was dangerous, but you can’t keep her away from her hometown,” she said.

Ramírez knew something was wrong when her mom didn’t come back home on Feb. 24. It was the worst day of her life, she said, as she showed us the last picture she took of her mom.

“I was very desperate. I must have called her a million times, but it went straight to voicemail.” Said Ramírez

The search for them is ongoing and all she can do is sit by the phone and hope authorities call her with an update. Mexican authorities, with the state of Nuevo León, told her the group made it as far as China, Nuevo León, 140 miles away from the Rio Grande Valley and about an hour away from Montemorelos. So far, the details are not clear as to why they stopped there or what happened to them and the pace is painstakingly slow, but Ramírez tries to be understanding.

“Authorities are doing all they can. They’re communicating with us very well. What’s harder is that there’s not a lot of technology like Matamoros, a big city, but I know everything that can be done is being done,” said Ramírez.

Many question why it’s taking so long and why the U.S. government is not pressuring Mexico the same way it did when four Americans were kidnapped in Matamoros. However, the missing women are not American citizens, but permanent residents. Marina Perez and Maritza Perez picked up Cervantes in Mexico. The United States has no leverage or say, because it’s a Mexican affair concerning their own citizens. Many Mexicans feel helpless against a kidnapping, a problem that has plagued Mexico for at least a decade. Ramirez was told by authorities, the day her mom went missing, seven others were reported missing.

The statistics of people missing in Mexico are frightening, with more than 100,000, many of whom have been missing for years. For the missing, they rarely get the response like the two Americans in Matamoros surviving Americans got. The area is desolate and overrun by drug cartels like the Gulf Cartel. Ramirez used to believe cartels don’t mess with normal people and she thought no one would want to do any harm to her mother.

”Because they’re good people. I used to have that mentality that if you’re good, you’re fine. I guess I was wrong,” she said.

Ramirez prays every day for her mom and aunt to be back home, but now her hope is that what happened to her mother can help others.

”I want my mom back with me, but it also serves a purpose for others to know, to think about it twice about where you’re going. It’s not safe,” she said.

Ramirez said the FBI is involved and collaborating with Mexican authorities. Ramirez went to Mexico the last time to drop DNA samples to help with the investigation.