By Ray Sanche
February 9, 2014
Artwork courtesy nydailynews.com
(CNN) – Harry Devert’s motorcycle journey from the United States to Latin America is somewhat reminiscent of “The Motorcycle Diaries,” which recount the South American travels of revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara on an old motorbike in search of his insurgent spirit.
But Devert, 32, who left a job as a trader in finance to travel the world, has not been in touch with his mother or girlfriend in New York since January 25. That day he sent girlfriend Sarah Ashley Schiear an ominous text via the WhatsApp messenger app.
“Just got an hour and a half long escort out of some area it was too dangerous for me to be,” the message said. “Stopping for lunch and … voila Internet. … Gonna get back on the road soon. Apparently there’s another military escort waiting for me in some other town… I’m running way late because of the crazy military stuff…hopefully get a chance to talk to you tonight when I (hopefully) finally arrive.”
He had checked out of a bed and breakfast in the southwestern Mexican state of Michoacan and planned to travel to a beach in Zihuatanejo, on the Pacific coast, that was in the final scene of the film “The Shawshank Redemption,” according to friends and family.
“My son is a great communicator and he always lets me know — because I’m anxious — as close as he can where he’s going to be or if he’s going to be out of touch,” his mother, Ann Devert, told CNN Saturday.
Ann Devert said she last heard from her son January 23. The phone connection was poor. He told her he’d be out of cell phone and Internet range a few days.
She said he called every January 29, his late father’s birthday, “and when he didn’t, I felt a misgiving but I thought maybe it would take a couple of days,” she said. “He didn’t call.”
Then, Ann Devert heard from a friend who recently returned from Michoacan, where vigilante self-defense groups in numerous communities have engaged in deadly confrontations with the Knights Templar drug cartel.
After vigilantes threatened to descend on a key cartel area last month, the Mexican government sent in thousands of troops and police to try to keep the peace. The government has even joined forces with the vigilantes as the Knights Templar become further entrenched in the agricultural state.
“This is an area in Michoacan that has been very dangerous,” said Ann Devert, who has been in contact with The Missing Americans Project, a Website dedicated to sharing information and resources about U.S. citizens missing in other countries.