Two women from Arizona were killed on Friday when gunmen opened fire on their vehicle on the Sonoyta-Caborca highway in the northern state of Sonora, authorities said.
Uvaldina Curiel Mendoza, 82, and her sister Enedina Curiel Mendoza, 72, were found dead inside an overturned, bullet-riddled Nissan Pathfinder SUV on the Sonoyta-Caborca highway, according to the Sonora Attorney General’s Office (FGJE).
The women were originally from Caborca, a city around 150 kilometers south of the Mexico-U.S. border between Lukeville, Arizona, and Sonoyta, Sonora.
They were on their way to Caborca when they were attacked. The driver reportedly lost control of the vehicle when the gunmen started shooting.
The husband of one of the victims lamented the death of his wife and sister-in-law in a post to Facebook.
“Today is the most terrible day in the existence of my family because [gunmen] wanting to rob my wife and sister-in-law killed them on the Sonoyta-Caborca stretch [of highway],” wrote José Ortiz Reyes, a former professor at the University of Sonora.
According to his Facebook page, he lives in Phoenix, Arizona.
A U.S. State Department spokesperson told CBS News that one of the women was a U.S. citizen while the other was a lawful permanent resident (LPR) of the United States.
The FGJE said in a statement that its investigation into the armed highway attack was advancing, but it didn’t reveal a motive. Media reports said the gunmen wanted to steal the women’s vehicle.
The news website La Silla Rota reported that stealing vehicles from both Mexican and foreign travelers has become a common “practice” in northern Sonora. Gunmen reportedly target pick-ups and SUVs.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation told CBS News that it was assisting Mexican authorities with their investigation into the murders of the two women.
The FGJE said that municipal, state and federal security forces participated in an operation to locate the perpetrators of the attack, but no arrests were reported.
Federal security forces did, however, find a vehicle and weapons allegedly used by the aggressors.
According to the FGJE statement, soldiers and National Guard personnel located a Ford pick-up truck near the town of Quitovac in the municipality of General Plutarco Elías Calles, which borders Arizona. The vehicle had been reported as stolen.
The federal security forces also found and seized ammunition, 25 cartridge holders, three bulletproof vests and four AK-47 assault rifles.
The attack on the Curiel sisters occurred in a part of Sonora known for violent crime.
In 2023, Sonora ranked as Mexico’s ninth most violent state in terms of total homicides with 1,453, according to preliminary data published by the national statistics agency INEGI earlier this month.
The U.S. State Department advises U.S. citizens to reconsider travel to Sonora due to crime and kidnapping.
“Sonora is a key location used by the international drug trade and human trafficking networks. Violent crime is widespread. U.S. citizens and LPRs have been victims of kidnapping,” the Department says.
“Travelers should maintain a heightened level of awareness of their surroundings in all their travels in Sonora. Security incidents may occur in any area of Sonora.”
With reports from El Financiero, La Silla Rota, CBS News
