MEXICO CITY (AP) — Gunmen kidnapped 4 U.S. residents who crossed into Mexico from Texas final week to purchase medication and bought caught in a shootout that killed at the very least one Mexican citizen, U.S. and Mexican officers stated Monday.
The 4 got here below hearth Friday shortly after coming into town of Matamoros from Brownsville, the southernmost tip of Texas close to the Gulf coast, in a white minivan with North Carolina license plates, the FBI San Antonio Division workplace stated in an announcement Sunday.
“All four Americans were placed in a vehicle and taken from the scene by armed men,” the workplace stated. The FBI is providing a $50,000 reward for the victims’ return and the arrest of the culprits.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador stated Monday that the 4 have been going to purchase medication and ended up within the crossfire between two armed teams, with out providing particulars.
A video posted to social media Friday reveals armed males, some carrying tan physique armor, load 4 folks into the again of a truck in broad daylight. One was alive and sitting up, however the others seemed to be both useless or wounded.
Just the standard dragging of our bodies after a cartel shootout in broad daylight, immediately in Matamoros.#Mexico #Narcostate #FailedState pic.twitter.com/bfWwNgjBcB
— David Wolf (@DavidWolf777) March 4, 2023
U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar stated in an announcement Monday that the Americans have been kidnapped at gunpoint and that an “innocent” Mexican citizen died within the assault. He didn’t supply any further particulars, however stated varied U.S. justice companies have been working with their Mexican counterparts to get better the lacking U.S. residents. Authorities have supplied no different particulars about who the victims have been or the place they have been from.
Matamoros is house to warring factions of the Gulf drug cartel, as management modifications led to violent infighting. Amid the violence, 1000’s of Mexicans have disappeared.
Shootouts there on Friday have been so unhealthy that the U.S. Consulate issued an alert in regards to the hazard and native authorities warned folks to shelter in place. It was not instantly clear how the abductions may have been linked to that violence Friday.
Tamaulipas state police stated folks had been killed and injured Friday, however not what number of. The state police stated on social media that neither legislation enforcement nor the army have been concerned in “two armed incidents between unidentified civilians.”
Victims of violence in Matamoros and different giant border cities of Tamaulipas typically go uncounted, as a result of the cartels have a historical past taking our bodies of their very own with them. Local media typically keep away from reporting on such incidents out of security considerations, creating an data vacuum.
Photographs from the scene seen by The Associated Press present a white minivan with the motive force’s aspect window shot out and all the doorways open sitting on the aspect of the highway after apparently colliding with pink SUV. Multiple folks have been mendacity on the street beside it surrounded by rifle-toting gunmen.
Their positions appeared to correspond with the video posted on-line that was taken from one other angle, which confirmed them being dragged throughout the road and loaded into the mattress of a white pickup. One one that was sitting up on the street walks below their very own energy to the pickup. At least one different appeared to elevate his head from the pavement earlier than being dragged to the truck.
Tamaulipas state’s many border crossings with Texas make it profitable for the cartels that transfer medicine, migrants and weapons between Mexico and the U.S.
The State Department’s journey warning for Tamaulipas warns U.S. residents to not journey there. However, being a border metropolis, U.S. residents who stay in Brownsville or elsewhere in Texas ceaselessly cross to go to household, attend medical appointments or store. It would even be a crossing level for folks touring deeper into Mexico.
Previously, because the headquarters of the highly effective Gulf cartel, Matamoros was comparatively calm. For years, an evening out in Matamoros was additionally a part of the “two-nation vacation” for spring breakers flocking to Texas’ South Padre Island.
But elevated cartel violence over the previous 10 to fifteen years frightened away a lot of that enterprise. Sometimes U.S. residents are swept up within the violence.
Three U.S. siblings disappeared close to Matamoros in October 2014 and have been later discovered shot to loss of life and burned. They had disappeared two weeks earlier whereas visiting their father in Mexico. Their dad and mom stated that they had been kidnapped by males wearing police gear figuring out themselves as “Hercules,” a tactical safety unit within the violent border metropolis.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”