Two of four Americans violently kidnapped in northern Mexico last week are dead and two are still alive, Mexican authorities reported Tuesday.
“It was already fully confirmed by the Prosecutor’s Office [General de Justicia]. Of the four, there are two of them dead, one person injured and the other alive,” said the governor of Tamaulipas, Américo Villareal.
His report came during the daily press conference of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who added: “We are very sorry that this is happening in our country and we send the relatives of the victims, their friends and the people of the United States, and to the government, our condolences”.
The Attorney General of Tamaulipas, Irving Barrios, said that the investigation work will continue. Local press reports indicated that authorities detained a suspect.
In a press conference on Monday, White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre stated that “these types of attacks are unacceptable” and called for Mexico’s collaboration.
The US authorities have not confirmed the finding of the victims.
What is known about the case?
According to investigations, armed men kidnapped the four Americans on March 3 when they were driving in a minivan to Matamoros, a city on the US border in the state of Tamaulipas.
According to a report from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the kidnappers opened fire on the vehicle before the kidnapping.
A video spread on social networks shows that Heavily armed men forcibly loaded the victims into a van. One of them is struck while being dragged into the vehicle, while the others appear to be unconscious.
They were identified by CBS News, the BBC’s partner network, as Latavia “Tay” McGee, Shaeed Woodard, Eric James Williams and Zindell Brown.
A Mexican woman, whose identity has not been released, was killed in the incident.
Tay McGee was planning to undergo a tummy tuck, a cosmetic surgery procedure to remove abdominal fat. Her mother, Barbara Burgess, told ABC News that she had asked her daughter not to be hers, but she assured her that she would be safe.
A US official told CNN that investigators believe a Mexican drug cartel likely mistook the Americans for Haitian drug traffickers.
The FBI had offered a $50,000 reward for information leading to the release of the victims and the arrest of the attackers.
What happens in Tamaulipas
The US government estimates that Hundreds of thousands of Americans cross the border into Mexico each year to receive health care services.including prescription drugs.
Most Americans cite lower costs as the most common reason for receiving treatment abroad.
But Tamaulipas is one of six states in Mexico that the US State Department advises travelers not to visit due to its dangerousness.
In an area where drug cartels control much of the territory and often have more power than local law enforcement.
According to the State Department, organized crime, “including shootings, murders, armed robberies, car thefts, kidnappings, enforced disappearances, extortion, and sexual assaults, is common along the northern border,” including the state from Tamaulipas.
Criminal groups have attacked buses and cars moving through the state, often seizing passengers and demanding ransom payments in an area where local police have limited ability to respond to crime, the State Department said.
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