Officials stated Tuesday that two Americans whose kidnapping in Mexico was documented in a video that showed them caught in a cartel battle had been found dead. Two other people who were kidnapped with them were found alive, one of whom was injured. Tamaulipas Governor Américo Villarreal declined to comment on the degree of the injured person’s injuries.
As witnessed by an Associated Press correspondent Tuesday morning, the remaining Americans were driven to the border near Brownsville, Texas, in a convoy of Mexican ambulances and SUVs. It was unclear whether the deceased’s bodies were also being returned to the United States.
The cars rushed down a long dirt road, trailed by Mexico military Humvees, armored vehicles, state police, and National Guard trucks armed with.50-caliber machine guns.
The FBI announced on Sunday that it was working with Mexican officials to find the missing Americans. According to a relative of one of them, the trio traveled together from South Carolina so one of them could have a belly tuck from a doctor in the border city of Matamoros, where the kidnapping occurred on Friday.
They were apprehended shortly after entering Mexico amid fighting between rival cartel organizations in the city. Gunmen were seen loading them into the back of a pickup truck in a video. A Mexican woman was also killed in the crossfire on Friday, according to officials.
According to a state official who requested anonymity because he was not permitted to speak about the issue, the Americans were discovered in a remote area east of Matamoros called Ejido Longoreo on their way to “Bagdad Beach” on the Gulf coast. Authorities were notified of their location before dawn on Tuesday.
Information concerning the four kidnapped Americans had been validated by prosecutors
Villarreal confirmed the killings by phone during a morning news conference held by Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, claiming prosecutors had confirmed details regarding the four abducted Americans. According to López Obrador, one suspect is in jail.
“Those responsible will be found and they are going to be punished,” he stated, referring to the arrests made in the 2019 killings of nine US-Mexican dual citizens in Sonora along the border with Mexico.
Mexico’s president chastised the American media for sensationalizing reports of the missing Americans.“It’s not like that when they kill Mexicans in the United States, they go quiet like mummies.”
“It’s very unfortunate, they (the U.S. government) have the right to protest as they have,” he said. “We regret that this happens in our country.”
The kidnapping serves as a stark reminder of the horror that has long reigned in Matamoros
The kidnapping exemplifies the fear that has persisted in Matamoros for years, a city governed by groups of the huge Gulf drug gang that frequently battle among themselves. Thousands of Mexicans have gone missing in Tamaulipas state alone as a result of the violence.
Footage and images obtained during and immediately after the kidnapping on Friday show the Americans’ white minivan parked next to another car, which a witness claims crashed with it. Several gunmen in tactical vests and carrying assault rifles arrived in another vehicle almost immediately to surround the site.
They carried one of the Americans to a white pickup truck and dragged and loaded the other three while scared drivers waited silently in their cars, hoping not to attract their attention. Two of the victims did not appear to be moving.
The FBI had offered a $50,000 reward for the recovery of the victims and the capture of the kidnappers.