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Mexico City, May 11, 2006 – “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, working with the Mexican Federal Attorney Generals Office’s Organized Crime Division and Mexico’s Federal Investigative Agency (known by the Spanish acronyms as the PGR/SIEDO and AFI, respectively), today stopped criminals from selling a baby and smuggling the infant across the border into the United States. Responsible investigative journalism by TV network Univision and cooperation by police agencies in both countries, prevented child smugglers from profiting from this crime,” announced Ambassador Antonio O. Garza.
Ambassador Garza went on to say that: “Federal authorities in Nuevo Laredo today arrested Ana Luisa Hidalgo-Rivera and Alex Hernandez, both Mexican nationals, on charges of attempting to sell a four week-old child over the Internet to an individual in Dallas, Texas, for the sum of US$50,000. The accused baby seller hired a migrant smuggler to take the infant across the border into the United States.”
“An individual in Dallas, whose identity is being protected, learned of the sale through his participation in an Internet chatroom. The individual contacted Univision reporters who used cameras to film the offer to sell the infant via the Internet. Undercover Univision reporters located Hidalgo-Rivera in Monterrey, Mexico, and videotaped her and Alex Hernandez offering to sell the baby, which Ms. Hidalgo-Rivera claims is hers,” added Garza.
The Ambassador closed by noting: “While law enforcement agencies on both sides of the border deserve recognition for preventing an infant from being sold and smuggled, Univision reporters should also be credited for preventing a serious crime from taking place. The arrests of Hidalgo-Rivera and Hernandez demonstrate the importance of cross-border cooperation, and provide one more example of why democratic government depends on the press to investigate and report.”
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