Particle.news

Binational Search Intensifies for Missing Federal Agent at La Quiaca Border

Hundreds of security personnel and an Interpol yellow alert have been deployed to widen searches and coordinate evidence collection across Argentina and Bolivia.

Overview

  • Maximiliano Oscar Martínez, a 30-year-old Federal Police agent, was last seen crossing from La Quiaca into Villazón by bicycle on Tuesday, September 8, and has not been located since.
  • His family filed a missing-person report on Thursday, September 10, which prompted formal searches and police coordination that quickly expanded across the border.
  • Investigators have mounted a reinforced binational operation of roughly 150–250 personnel that has included night-time raids in Villazón, collection of DVRs and CCTV footage, and no conclusive trace of Martínez so far.
  • The Fiscalía in La Quiaca requested and secured an Interpol yellow alert to broaden international cooperation while local neighbors and family members have held mass demonstrations pressing for faster results.
  • Search teams say the porous informal crossing at the riverside and the two-day delay before the complaint were obstacles to evidence preservation, and officials say the next steps hinge on CCTV analysis and Bolivian-Argentine case coordination.