The four Americans who were kidnapped in Mexico crossed the border to buy medication and may have been victims of mistaken identity, the Mexican president said Monday, even as the White House remained mum about the incident for privacy reasons.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador confirmed the incident, which occurred Friday, in his first public remarks since the attack.
“The information we have is that they crossed the border to buy medicines in Mexico, there was a confrontation between groups and they were detained,” he said. “The whole government is working on it.”
The Americans were kidnapped by armed men in Mexico after they came under gunfire shortly after crossing the border into the city of Matamoros in Tamaulipas state.
Matamoros lies just across the Rio Grande from Brownsville, Texas.
A $50,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the victims’ return and the arrest of the culprits, the FBI’s San Antonio division said.
Little is known about the victims.
The FBI said they were driving a white minivan with North Carolina license plates. Shortly after entering Matamoros, gunmen fired upon the vehicle’s passengers and then seized the four Americans.
“All four Americans were placed in a vehicle and taken from the scene by armed men,” according to the FBI.
Ken Salazar, the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, said in a statement Monday afternoon that an innocent Mexican was killed in the incident, but did not offer any more details. He said the assailants were unknown.
The White House remained mum on the attack.
Officials declined to confirm Mr. Obrador’s statement or provide any information about the Mexican killed in the attack.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said she couldn’t say much about the incident, citing privacy concerns.
“These sort of attacks are unacceptable. Our thoughts are with the families of these individuals and we stand by ready to provide all appropriate consular assistance,” she told reporters.
Ms. Jean-Pierre said the U.S. will continue to coordinate with Mexico to bring those responsible to justice, adding that law enforcement in both countries are working together.
The White House response comes as Republican lawmakers urged President Biden to prioritize the return of the Americans.
They said he should work as hard to free them as he did to get WNBA star Brittney Griner out of a Russian prison, even to the point of trading notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout from a U.S. prison to get her back.
“If Joe Biden can trade the ‘Merchant of Death’ for Brittney Griner, he better be focusing on these four Americans ASAP,” tweeted Rep. Andy Biggs, Arizona Republican.
Mr. Biggs was one of a handful of GOP lawmakers who drew a comparison between four Americans missing since Friday and the administration’s high-profile efforts to free Ms. Griner after she was detained on drug charges in Russia.
“I hope Joe Biden pays as much attention to the four U.S. citizens kidnapped at gunpoint in Mexico as he did Brittney Griner,” wrote Rep. Troy Nehls, Michigan Republican.
Ms. Jean-Pierre said Mr. Biden was aware of the incident and “involved,” but did not elaborate.
Law enforcement has not yet named the kidnapped Americans and their conditions are also unknown.
The State Department has issued a “Level 4: Do Not Travel” advisory for U.S. citizens entering Tamaulipas because of rampant crime and kidnapping.
Matamoros is home to warring factions of the Gulf drug cartel and shootouts were so bad Friday that the U.S. Consulate issued an alert about the danger and local authorities warned people to shelter in place.
It was not immediately clear whether or how the abductions could have been connected to that violence Friday.
Tamaulipas state police said people had been killed and injured, but did not say how many. The state police said that neither police nor the military was involved in the shootouts.
“There have been two armed incidents between unidentified civilians,” the state police said Friday on social media. “The exact number of the fallen is being corroborated.”
Victims of violence in Matamoros and other large border cities of Tamaulipas often go uncounted, because the cartels are known to take their dead or wounded members back with them. Local media also often avoid reporting on such incidents out of safety concerns, creating an information vacuum.
A video posted to social media Friday showed armed men loading two bodies into a truck in broad daylight.
Photographs from the scene viewed by The Associated Press show a white minivan with the driver’s side window shot out and all the doors open sitting on the side of the road after apparently colliding with a red SUV.
Multiple people were lying in the street beside it, surrounded by rifle-toting gunmen.
Their positions appeared to correspond with the video posted online that was taken from another angle, which showed them being dragged across the street and loaded into the bed of a white pickup.
One person who was sitting up in the street walked unaided to the pickup. At least one other appeared to lift his head from the pavement before being dragged to the truck.
While the State Department has warned U.S. citizens not to travel to Tamaulipas, U.S. citizens who live in Brownsville or elsewhere in South Texas frequently cross to visit family, attend medical appointments, or to shop. It would also be a crossing point for people traveling deeper into Mexico.
For decades, a night out in Matamoros was also part of the “two-nation vacation” for spring breakers flocking to South Padre Island in Texas. But the cartel violence in Mexico has frightened away much of that business over the past 10 to 15 years.
• This article is based in part on wire service reports.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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