http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-34172733

Thousands of women and girls disappear in Mexico every year - many are never seen alive again. When one couple realised their daughter was missing, they knew they didn't have long to find her.

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Each year it's estimated that 20,000 people are trafficked in Mexico, according to the International Organization for Migration. The majority are forced into prostitution. Authorities say a growing number are being targeted online.
Karen's family realised they didn't have long to stop her being taken out of the country. They put pressure on the police to issue an "amber alert", and plastered official missing posters at every bus terminal and toll booth around Mexico City. They managed to get their daughter's case on television and radio news bulletins.
Their tenacity paid off. Sixteen days after Karen disappeared, she was abandoned at a bus terminal, along with another girl who was registered missing in a different state. The publicity had spooked their trafficker who was planning to take them to New York. He has never been caught.
"This man had promised her travel, money, a music career and fame. He manipulated her really well, and in her innocence she didn't understand the magnitude of the danger she'd been in," says Alejandro...............

The parts of Mexico under civilian control are generally as safe and pleasant as typical places in America. But the parts of Mexico Not under civilian control are like something out of a MadMax movie...

I used to live in Mexico for a time (economics) between marriages. Anyway, today you wouldn't' see my face crossing that bridge. My now-wife wanted to go to a Mexican resort for vacation but I said no way. I just don't trust the police nor the cartels that run the country. It seems to be getting better in Juarez but I'm still leery. Sometimes I now think, "what was I thinking" with some of the things I did while there. I used to pick up this sweet, beautiful woman who worked the swing shift and take her home around midnight and I would stay with her pretty much late around 3 a.m. I never thought about what if my truck broke down at that hour and she lived pretty far from my temporary home. God took care of me even though I didn't deserve it.