Summary of the news
- Four Americans were kidnapped in Mexico after a shootout in Matamoros.
- The group is believed to have crossed the border to buy medicine.
- Authorities in both countries, including the FBI, are looking for the Americans.
- The United States advises against Americans traveling through the Matamoros region.
Americans were placed in the back of the vehicle Reproduction Twitter/UngaTheGreat
Mexico and the United States are working together to locate four Americans who were kidnapped in the Mexican city of Matamoros last Friday (3) when one person died, officials from both countries said Monday (6).
“The whole government works there,” Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador confirmed the kidnapping. The US Ambassador to Mexico, Ken Salazar, announced on Monday that a Mexican national had died in the action.
According to López Obrador, the victims are American citizens who “crossed the border to buy medicine in Mexico and a clash between groups ensued and they were arrested.”
The Americans arrived in Matamoros, Tamaulipas state on Friday (3) aboard a white minivan with North Carolina license plates, the FBI said on Sunday (5).
“Shortly after entering Mexico, unidentified gunmen opened fire on the occupants of the vehicle. The four Americans were put in a car and taken away,” the investigative department added.
Mexico is working with the FBI
The Mexican President pointed out that the FBI works with the country’s Secretariat of Security and maintains “communications” with the head of that office, Rosa Icela Rodríguez.
For his part, Salazar explained that “various US law enforcement agencies” are working with Mexican authorities “to secure the safe return” of their compatriots.
The FBI has offered a $50,000 reward to help rescue the unidentified victims and apprehend the suspects.
The municipality of Matamoros, in the northwest of the country, borders the United States and has seen repeated incidents of violence linked to drug trafficking and other forms of organized crime.
The streets of Tamaulipas are among the most dangerous in the country due to the threat of kidnapping and extortion by criminal groups.
For several months, the United States has maintained a warning to American citizens not to refrain from traveling to this Mexican state due to organized crime activities, which include shootings, murders, robberies, kidnappings, enforced disappearances, extortion and sexual assault.
Even consulate employees are prohibited from driving on the region’s side roads.