Assya Madjour and her husband Michel have built their happiness at Caterina, an inn they were about to reopen after work. In Valladolid, in the Yucatan, on the eastern tip of the Mexico, this newly married French couple had just acquired another establishment. “Their life project”, blows with BFMTV.com one of their relatives, without news of them since August 25.
On September 26, the families of this French couple from the Basque Country reported their disappearance. A disturbing disappearance relayed by French authorities with their Mexican counterparts. The French Embassy in Mexico assures that “its services [sont] mobilized, just like the Consulate General of France in Mexico, in close contact with the family”, to find them.
“We live in permanent anguish”, breathes Nawel Madjour, the sister of the Frenchwoman. “We ask a lot of questions: ‘Are they alive?’ ‘Are they okay?'”
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Assya Madjour and her husband Michel, aged 50 and 57 respectively, met a few years ago through a friend in the Basque Country. The first had already lived in Mexico before, the second had already been there for about fifteen years. The couple first settled in Playa del Carmen, in Quintana Roo. Michel rents studios there on the coast.
Two years ago, they moved to Valladolid, took over a hotel, then got married four months ago.
For their activities, this fusion couple, who work hand in hand, regularly go back and forth between Valladolid and Playa del Carmen.
“We were in contact all the time,” explains Nawel Madjour. “They didn’t feel in danger, but I was still worried about them because of the dangerousness of the region.”
The authorities’ search for them will be concentrated in Chiapas, more than 800 kilometers from Valladolid. On September 6, Assya Madjour sent her family an email explaining that she was in a spiritual center in this state in the center of the country. This stay does not resemble the character of the fifty-year-old.
“It surprised me a little”, agrees the sister of the Frenchwoman, who was not alerted at that time.
On September 12, it was Michel’s turn to send a message indicating that he was in Chiapas to buy land.
“It’s sure it’s a kidnapping”
But the couple’s families question the origin of these messages and do not believe in the Chiapas hypothesis. They are certain that the couple never left Yucatan.
“For us, it is certain that it is a kidnapping. We do not believe in the thesis of Chiapas. They often circulated between Valladolid and Playa del Carmen, and Quintana Roo is known as a State where he there are a lot of disappearances.”
Relatives of Assya Madjour and Michel first alerted to the disappearance of the couple on social networks. Before contacting the authorities with the hope that the research is progressing. “We know that the French authorities are working hand in hand with the Mexican authorities”, concludes Nawel Madjour.
“It’s a kidnapping”: the concern of the relatives of the French couple who disappeared in Mexico