The event was recorded on March 3 in the Mexican city of Matamoros, but President Andrés Manuel López Obrador referred until this Monday.
Since last Friday, the two countries have been in suspense due to the information that had been spreading on social networks and that was confirmed in the last few hours, since actions are already being coordinated to locate the 4 citizens.
“The entire government is there working” in their searchsaid the Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, on Monday, confirming the abduction in the border city with Brownsville (Texas), during his usual press conference.
“These types of attacks are unacceptable,” said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.in a briefing, adding that the government of President Joe Biden is “closely monitoring” the case.
During the kidnapping, a Mexican citizen died, confirmed the state prosecutor of Tamaulipas, Irving Barrios, who confirmed that there are ongoing efforts to locate the victims and learn the circumstances of the incident.
“The commitment is to locate the citizens, clarify the facts and find the probable perpetrators,” Barrios told reporters in Ciudad Victoria, the capital of Tamaulipas.
How were Americans kidnapped in Mexico?
The victims crossed the border last Friday in a white minivan and once they were in Matamoros a group of armed men fired at them and then boarded the vehicle to take them away in another car. indicated Univision.
The US embassy requests the collaboration of the public “to identify the persons responsible for the aggression and kidnapping” of their compatriots.
In addition, this Monday Ambassador Ken Salazar visited the National Palace of Mexico to speak with AMLO regarding the case, but he left the government palace without declaring to the press.
Previously, Ambassador Salazar stated in a statement that “various US law enforcement agencies” are collaborating with the Mexican authorities “to achieve the safe return” of their compatriots.
These are the last known images of the victims:
For now, the investigations are focused on the analysis of the two vehicles involved in the kidnapping, the lifting of fingerprints and the review of public and private security cameras that recorded the attack.
According to López Obrador, the victims are US citizens who “crossed the border to buy medicines in Mexico and there was a confrontation between groups and they were arrested”. Although the US has not referred to that version.
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FBI assumes investigation for kidnapping of Americans in Tamaulipas
The Americans had arrived in Matamoros on Friday in a van with North Carolina license plates, as reported on Sunday by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which is working in conjunction with the Mexican Ministry of Security.
The FBI is offering a $50,000 reward for helping rescue the victims – whose identities have not been released – and arrest the suspects. The bureau asks to call the FBI’s San Antonio Division or submit a tip online.
This Monday a US official with knowledge of this case told CNN who believe they were attacked by mistake and were not the intended victims in the attack. Investigators believe, the network said, that they were mistaken for Haitian drug traffickers.
The source also told this outlet that no criminal records of the Americans have been identified and that they do not believe they traveled to Mexico for criminal purposes.
Security situation in Matamoros
Matamoros has been hit by violence linked to drug trafficking and other forms of organized crime.
The roads of Tamaulipas are considered among the most dangerous in Mexico.
In fact, for several months the United States has maintained an alert so that its citizens refrain from traveling to that state, due to kidnappings and other crimes.
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According to that warning, organized crime activity there includes shootings, murders, robberies, kidnappings, enforced disappearances, extortion and sexual assaults.
In this regard, the spokesman for the US State Department, Ned Price, reminded his citizens on Monday that the travel alert for Tamaulipas is still in force. “Don’t travel. We encourage Americans to heed this advice.”held.
Consulate staff are prohibited from even traveling on the region’s back roads.
