Luis Gutierrez

Reward posters for Servando Salazar Cano

More than a month has passed since Servando Salazar, a 10-year-worker at Prime Wheel factory in Tijuana, disappeared on August 23 within the company's facilities. His disappearance occurred in strange circumstances since security cameras  confirm he entered the factory as usual but never got out.

Prime Wheel, located across the border from Otay Mesa, sells road wheels and parts to customers in the U.S.

Servando's wife Wendy Bravo, pregnant and mother of three daughters, said that she and her sister-in-law went to look for him at the factory the next morning. They got access to much of the company's facilities but couldn't make it to the area where the industrial furnaces are located.

Prime Wheel sells road wheels and parts to customers in the U.S.

Mexico Now

Wendy reported her husband's disappearance to the state prosecutor's office. Then she looked for support from Tijuana collectives dedicated to finding missing persons and started her search for Servando in areas surrounding the factory, which is located in a sparsely populated area on the outskirts of town.

While Wendy and the collectives were dismissing the possibility of Servando's whereabouts outside the maquiladora, the prosecutor's office conducted a search of the company's furnaces. That search led the office to obtain an arrest warrant for the two persons in charge of that area of the factory.

Translation: "We demand justice. We want an answer. (in smaller type: We miss Servando"

Luis Gutierrez

Wendy felt the prosecutor's office wasn't transparent and efficient enough. Wendy along with her relatives and encouraged by other maquiladora employees started a protest blocking the factory's entrances.

For now, Wendy has no more option than waiting for the DNA results taken from the furnaces.

“How can be possible they are running the factory as if nothing happened; they are supposed to look out for their employees' security; he worked there for 10 years.... We held out as much as we could despite some of us getting harassed by their security staff. We just wanted to be heard. I know anyone would do the same to find their missing loved ones.”

Luis Gutierrez

This blockade was used by Prime Wheel as an argument to fire those who didn't make it to their job that day due to the protest, a situation that led to workers turning their backs to the cause, and Wendy started to get criticism from employees via text messages. The protest lasted two days when Wendy agreed to leave if those who lost their jobs would get them back.  

“I am not giving up my fight, and I am not being paid off by the company as they are making it look like. But I never thought they would take it against other employees. I need to get back home, rest, see my kids, and take care of the little person I have inside me”. Wendy noted.

Despite this incident, the case popped up back in the public eye and in the hours after the protest. Maria Andrade, the state prosecutor, explained to the press their investigation was not considering Servando's disappearance as a work accident but as a possible intentional crime.

“One of the investigation guidelines suggests that criminal activities have been committed," Maria Andrade said.

For now, Wendy has no more option than waiting for the DNA results taken from the furnaces, but since the company handles strong solvents and industrial chemicals evidence can be really difficult to find and too easy to get rid of.

Wendy refuses to believe Servando is one of the accidents and deaths to which workers of the maquiladora are exposed.

Here is more about the case from a Reddit posting.

Prime Wheel sells road wheels and parts to customers in the U.S.

Mexico Now