Posted on 03/07/2023 8:12:10 AM PST by Red Badger
Tamaulipas Gov. Américo Villarreal made the announcement over the phone at a presidential news conference Tuesday morning, noting that one of the surviving victims is wounded.
Two of the four Americans who were shot at by gunmen and kidnapped shortly after crossing the border into northern Mexico last week are dead, according to the governor of Tamaulipas state.
Gov. Américo Villarreal made the announcement over the phone at a presidential news conference Tuesday morning, noting that the other Americans are alive. One of the surviving victims, however, is wounded, he said. The person's condition was not disclosed.
The governor said details were confirmed by prosecutors earlier Tuesday morning. He said that ambulances and security personnel were going to give support to the victims.
It’s not clear where they were found.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said further details would be released later.
“We are very sorry that this happened in our country and we send our condolences to the families of the victims, friends, and the United States government, and we will continue doing our work to guarantee peace and tranquility," he said.
Tamaulipas Attorney General Irving Barrios Mojica tweeted Tuesday that the four U.S. citizens were found by “joint search actions.” He said that work is underway to capture those behind the kidnapping.
The FBI had been offering a $50,000 reward for the safe return of the U.S. citizens. The group was kidnapped Friday after driving into Matamoros, Tamaulipas, just south of Brownsville, Texas.
Dramatic video showing a gunman dragging people into a white pickup truck captured the kidnapping as it unfolded, a law enforcement source with knowledge of the matter confirmed.
Authorities have yet to identify the four people.
But one of the victims was identified as LaTavia Washington McGee by her cousin, Aliyah McCleod, who is acting as a family spokesperson.
McCleod said the group is from South Carolina, and had been traveling in a rental vehicle with North Carolina license plates when they entered Matamoros. The FBI confirmed that the group was traveling in a white minivan with North Carolina plates.
McCleod said the group had traveled to Mexico for a "medical procedure." She said her family was pleading for their safe return.
A law enforcement official with knowledge of the matter said a woman in the group had been seeking a cosmetic medical procedure. The official said cartel gunmen had targeted the group in a case of mistaken identity.
Zalandria Brown of Florence, South Carolina, told The Associated Press that her younger brother, Zindell, was among the four victims. She said she had been in contact with the FBI and local officials after learning her sibling had been kidnapped.
“This is like a bad dream you wish you could wake up from,” she told the news agency. “To see a member of your family thrown in the back of a truck and dragged, it is just unbelievable.”
Brown said her brother, who lives in Myrtle Beach, had been on the trip to accompany a friend who was traveling to Mexico for a procedure.
She also said that her brother had some reservations about them making the trip because of the potential dangers in Mexico.
“Zindell kept saying, ‘We shouldn’t go down,’” Brown told the AP.
At a news briefing in Washington on Monday, White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said the Biden administration was "closely following the assault and kidnapping of four U.S. citizens."
"These sorts of attacks are unacceptable," she said, adding that U.S. law enforcement was in touch with Mexican authorities, as were the departments of State and Homeland Security.
"We will continue to coordinate with Mexico and push them to bring those responsible to justice," Jean-Pierre said.
Ken Salazar, the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, said in a statement Monday that an “innocent Mexican citizen was tragically killed” during the kidnapping.
President López Obrador said at a news conference that the Americans were in Mexico to buy medicine, a common practice for people seeking cheaper medications across the southern border.
The FBI and Mexican law enforcement are investigating, with the bureau asking the public for information leading to arrests. Anyone with information is urged to call the FBI’s San Antonio division at 210-225-6741.
The State Department has a “Do Not Travel” warning in place for Tamaulipas state due to “crime and kidnapping." It said organized crime activity, including gun battles, armed robberies and kidnappings, are common along the border and in Ciudad Victoria.
“Criminal groups target public and private passenger buses, as well as private automobiles traveling through Tamaulipas, often taking passengers and demanding ransom payments,” the warning says.
Matamoros
I know it well
Moor Killers
Yes there is an irony there but I do not wish to make any light of this
Those poor girls the horror
Lordy , they went to mexico for plastic surgery. Worst idea ever.
A lot of people go to Mexico for cheap surgery especially plastic surgery but I myself personally seen some of these procedures not do very well
Stomach stapling
Black women besides 90% needing to shed weight
Need butt reduction not enlargement
My opinion
When I was a kid black women were thin
The lighter skinned sometimes comely
Now it’s waddle time
Crazy
Had a co-worker go to TJ for an operation. I guess it worked...for a minute. But she just kept eating the way she always has...and lost no weight. She eats like crap...all the time. Total waste of money.....Should have just wired her mouth shut.
Report I heard this morning was that it was the Mexican gov’t that mistakenly did this... Mexican gov’t officials on the cartel payroll.
Those ghetto gals put their money maker to work. Popping out as many kids as they can birth without a babydad equals more money and freebies from unca Sam.
I have a great idea! Instead of having to take a trip down to Mexico for all that FUN and EXCITEMENT, let's open up the border, and we can enjoy the same THRILLS right here in the Good Old USA!
They did!........................
Been there, done that.
Mexico used to be very protective of American tourists. LOTS of turista money. Now the country gets funds from the cartels and from china. Follow the money and you will find their loyalties.
Back in the 90’s I worked for a company that sent people to Mexico to work with their banking systems and they hired arm guards back then due to the high risk of kidnapping.
There was a time when American Presidents didn’t put up this kind of...stuff.
“John Hay, the American Secretary of State, issued a statement to the Republican National Convention in June 1904 that “This government wants Perdicaris alive or Raisuni dead.” Roosevelt’s display of force...”
Of course no one is likely to confuse FJB with TR.
If Pershing and Patton couldn’t do it nobody can.
Yep, and time to do it again.
Yep, 100% they were going for “Brazilian” butt implants or injections. Which is probably why the criminals knew exactly where they were going to be.
I suspect a big deal will be made of this because the victims are black....
I guess the main question would be why Americans are forced to seek cheaper health care or cosmetic or dental care in a third world country.....why is OUR system so out of whack with what average Americans can afford.
tell her to stop eating wheat!
It plugs your system so you don’t absorb any nutrients, so you are constantly hungry.
With no other changes to my diet or exercise I lost 40 pounds just by stopping eating wheat. But you have to be religious about if for AT LEAST several weeks. Because if you eat one single thing of wheat you have to start over.
meat and veggies. simple as that
Going to Mexico for medical treatment or prescriptions is a long-time tradition.
In the early/mid 1950’s my Dad, and some of his long time friends and fellow WWI and WWII vets drove into Mexico for Rx glasses, false teeth, teeth removal or feeling and some fairly heavy surgery.
They were vets from the SW and Texas. The Texas vets guided them and help keep them safe.
Flash forward, a young 30 something guy and his 65 year old Mother drove to the California/Mexico border, parked in an armed parking lot and got a ride to the dental surgeon’s Mexicanoffice. Had the procedures done at about 20% of American costs. They caught a ride back and rode across the border back to their armed guard parking lot.
So far, they have had no problems from the dental procedures.
They all got back okay and no one died of an infection nor were kidnapped.
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