Tijuana, March 7. The violence against U.S. citizens in Tamaulipas demonstrates the urgent need to act against the cartels, warned U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar, following the kidnapping and deaths of two U.S. citizens who were kidnapped while crossing into Mexico through Matamoros.
"We regret the murders of two American citizens in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, and we join in the grief of their loved ones. We extend our condolences to the family of the Mexican victim. We also grieve for the physical and emotional distress of the other two American victims who are still alive," the diplomat said in a statement.
Salazar confirmed that "as we have noted in our Travel Alerts, Tamaulipas poses a risk due to high levels of crime and violence. We are particularly concerned about the Gulf Cartel's control of the area known as the small border."
On Tuesday morning, during President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's morning press conference, while reporting on the case, Secretary of Security Rosa Icela Rodríguez and the heads of National Defense and the Navy, Luis Cresencio Sandoval and Rafael Ojeda, respectively, reported that one of the lines of investigation is that the group was mistaken for being kidnapped.
