Four Americans who traveled to Mexico on Friday for cosmetic surgery were trapped a deadly shooting and were abducted by heavily armed men who threw them into the back of a pickup truck, officials from both countries said, who are now looking for them and are offering $50,000 for their release.
Relatives of the victims said that the abductees had traveled so that one of them could undergo cosmetic surgery.
One of them I was about to have a tummy tuck -elimination of abdominal fat- in a border town, says the sister of one of the victims.
“To see a member of your family thrown into the back of a pickup truck and hauled away, it’s just unbelievable,” Zalandria Brown told the AP of her brother Zindell Brown.
The FBI offered a reward of US$50,000 for your return.
The other people in the group have been identified by US media as Latavia McGee, Shaeed Woodard and Eric James Williams.
They were driving through Matamoros, which is directly across the border from the Texas city of Brownsville, in a white minivan with North Carolina plates when unidentified gunmen opened fire, the FBI said.
One video shows heavily armed men loading them into a van. One is manhandled in the vehicle while others appear to be knocked unconscious and are pulled into the vehicle.
A Mexican woman died in the crash, which the Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, called a “clash between armed groups”. He said his “whole government” was working to secure the release of the Americans.
Zalandria Brown of Florence, South Carolina, said she has been in contact with the FBI and local officials after learning that her younger brother, Zindell Brown, is one of the four victims.
According to an unnamed US official quoted by CNN, investigators believe a Mexican cartel likely misled Americans. with Haitian drug traffickers.
Barbara Burgess, Ms McGee’s mother, told ABC News she had warned her daughter not to gobut her daughter said, “Mom, I’ll be fine.”
Her daughter called on Friday to tell her she was going to make an appointment for a tummy tuck, which removes belly fat.
When Barbara Burgess called her later that day, the phone went to voicemail.
Brown said his brother, who lives in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, I knew parts of Mexico could be dangerous.
“Zindell kept saying, ‘We shouldn’t go down,'” she told the AP, adding that it was “like a bad dream you want to wake up from.”
“Don’t travel”
Matamoros is located in the state of Tamaulipas, one of six Mexican states that the State Department recommends to travelers do not visit due to “crime and kidnapping”.
Drug cartels control much of the country and often have more power than local law enforcement agencies.
Video
Video posted to social media on Friday showed men with assault rifles and tan body armor loading the four people onto the flatbed of a white pickup truck in broad daylight. One was alive and seated, but the others appeared to be dead or injured. At least one person appeared to lift their head off the curb before being pulled into the truck.
The scene illustrates the terror that has reigned for years in Matamoros, a city dominated by powerful factions Gulf drug cartel they often argue with each other. In the midst of the violence, thousands of Mexicans they disappeared only in the state of Tamaulipas.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said on Monday that “there was a clash between groups and they were arrested,” without giving details. He initially he said that the four Americans have come to Mexico for Buy medicines.
A woman driving in Matamoros who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation said she witnessed what appeared to be the shooting and kidnapping.
the white minivan was hit by another vehicle near an intersection, then shots were heard, the woman said. Another van stopped and several armed men got out.
“Suddenly they (the attackers) were in front of us,” he said. “I went into shock, nobody honked, nobody moved. Everyone must have thought the same thing: ‘If we move, they’ll see us or shoot us.’”
Agencies
ap
Source: Clarin
Mary Ortiz is a seasoned journalist with a passion for world events. As a writer for News Rebeat, she brings a fresh perspective to the latest global happenings and provides in-depth coverage that offers a deeper understanding of the world around us.