2 Americans, abducted in Mexico while still in the US, taken to hospital; 2 dead

CIUDAD DE MEXICO, CDMX — A car trip to Mexico for cosmetic surgery ended in the death of two Americans and two others found alive in a rural area near the Gulf Coast — after a brutal shootout and kidnapping were caught on video, officials said in a statement. Tuesday.

The surviving Americans returned to the US after being transported to the border near Brownsville, the southernmost tip of Texas, in a convoy of ambulances and SUVs, escorted by Mexican military Hummer vehicles and National Guard trucks armed with 50-caliber machine guns.

A relative of one of the victims said on Monday that the four had traveled together from the Carolinas so that one of them could have a tummy tuck at a doctor in the Mexican border town of Matamoros, where the abduction took place on Friday.

Irving Barrios, Attorney General for the state of Tamaulipas, confirmed that the two Americans were handed over to US authorities at the international bridge in Brownsville, Texas. They were then taken to the Valley Regional Medical Center with an FBI escort, according to the Brownsville Herald. The hospital spokesman forwarded all inquiries to the FBI.

The US citizens were found in a rural area east of Matamoros called Ejido Longoreño on their way to the Gulf Coast known as “Baghdad Beach”, according to a Mexican law enforcement official. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to discuss the case publicly. Word of their whereabouts reached authorities before dawn on Tuesday.

It was not immediately clear if the two bodies were also returned to the US. In announcing that the Americans had been found, Tamaulipas Governor Américo Villarreal did not provide details on the extent of the injured man’s injuries.

Shortly after entering Mexico, all four were caught fighting between rival cartel factions in the city. Video and photographs taken during and immediately after the abduction show a white American minivan standing next to another vehicle with at least one bullet hole in the driver’s side window. According to eyewitnesses, there was a collision of two cars. Almost immediately, several men wearing tactical vests and carrying machine guns arrived in another vehicle to surround the scene.

The gunmen pushed one of the Americans into the back of a white pickup truck, then dragged and loaded three others. Frightened drivers sat silently in their cars, hoping not to attract their attention. Two victims were found to be immobile.

Officials said a Mexican woman also died in Friday’s shootout.

The shooting illustrates the reign of terror that has reigned for years in Matamoros, a city dominated by factions of the powerful Persian Gulf drug cartel who often go to war among themselves. Amid the violence, thousands of Mexicans have disappeared in the state of Tamaulipas alone.

Villarreal confirmed the death by telephone during a morning press conference for Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, saying details of the four abducted Americans had been confirmed by prosecutors.

Lopez Obrador said one person is in custody.

“The guilty will be found and they will be punished,” the President said. He cited arrests made in connection with the 2019 killing of nine US-Mexican dual nationals in Sonora near the US border.

He complained about US media coverage of missing Americans, accusing them of sensationalism. “It’s not like when Mexicans are killed in the United States, they go silent like mummies.”

“Very unfortunate, they (the US government) have the right to protest, as they have,” said Lopez Obrador. “We are very sorry that this is happening in our country.”

US Attorney General Merrick Garland expressed sympathy for the families of the victims.

“The cartels are responsible for the deaths of Americans,” Garland said. “The DEA and the FBI are doing everything they can to dismantle and destroy and ultimately bring to justice the leaders of the cartel and all the networks on which they depend.”

He did not confirm the Mexican government’s reports of the deaths of two US citizens.

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the US is working with Mexican authorities to learn more about the circumstances surrounding the killings.

“Attacks against US citizens are unacceptable, no matter where and under what circumstances they may occur,” Kirby said.

The FBI offered a $50,000 reward for the return of the victims and the arrest of the kidnappers.

Robert Williams said in a telephone interview that his brother, 38-year-old Eric Williams, was among the abducted Americans. The brothers are originally from South Carolina but now live in the Winston-Salem area of ​​North Carolina, he said.

Williams described his brother as “calm” and “jolly”.

He didn’t know his brother was going to Mexico until the kidnapping was on the news. But looking at his brother’s Facebook posts, he thinks his brother didn’t see the trip as dangerous.

“He thought it would be fun,” Williams said. According to him, he had not heard anything about the whereabouts of his brother.