Last Friday, four Black Americans were attacked and kidnapped by a gunman in Mexico. On Tuesday, two of the four group members were found dead while the other two were found alive.
“Two of them are dead, one person is injured and the other is alive,” Américo Villarreal, the governor of Tamaulipas, Mexico, announced during a news conference, according to the New York Times. “Ambulances and the rest of the security personnel are on their way right now to offer support.”
It all started when the four Americans drove into the border town of Matamoros, Mexico, from Brownsville, Texas, in a white minivan with North Carolina license plates. One member of the group was there for a cosmetic procedure, which tends to be far less expensive in Mexico than they are in the states, and the other three were presumably there to support her. The FBI reported that at some point during the trip, a gunman opened fire on the vehicle.
From the Times:
The gunmen then put the Americans in another vehicle and drove them away.
During the episode, “an innocent Mexican citizen” was killed, according to Ken Salazar, the U.S. ambassador to Mexico. He said on Monday that multiple U.S. law enforcement agencies were working with the Mexican authorities to find and rescue the missing Americans.
While it is common for Americans to get entangled in violence in northern Mexico, a shared border nearly 2,000 miles long with large swaths dominated by drug cartels and criminal organizations, it is not very common for U.S. nationals to be kidnapped in Mexico.
So, why were the members of this group targeted?
Well, according to CNN, U.S. officials said Investigators believe a Mexican drug cartel likely mistook them for Haitian drug smugglers. Meanwhile, a friend of the woman who reportedly traveled to Mexico for a tummy tuck was identified along with her companions to CNN. The friend, who wished to remain anonymous, told CNN that 33-year-old Latavia “Tay” Washington…
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