MEXICO CITY - Five men, lying face down with
their hands bound
, were found Thursday by Mexican authorities along with a letter allegedly written by a powerful criminal cartel blaming them for a recent attack on four Americans, according to two people familiar with the investigation.
The note apologized for the assault, which killed two Americans and a Mexican, and claimed that the cartel was offering up the men who carried it out, according to photos reviewed by The New York Times
.
Soldiers on patrol at the Forensic Medical Service after the murder of two Americans and the kidnapping of two others, in Matamoros, Mexico.
(Alejandro Cegarra/The New York Times)
The people who described the find were granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
"We have decided to hand over those directly involved and responsible for the events, who at all times acted of their own free will," the letter said.
The five men were found, alive, along with the note, in Matamoros, Mexico, the Rio Grande border city where the Americans were attacked.
It was not clear if the message was accurate or had been written by the cartel.
Mexican authorities will question the five men to determine if they actually participated in the kidnapping and murders.
In Mexico, messages have often appeared near bodies abandoned in public places in which cartels take responsibility for crimes and issue warnings to rivals, security forces or the general public.
But the notes are not always reliable.
Sometimes a criminal group tries to blame horrific violence on its rivals, and other times the messages portray
innocent victims
as cartel members, security experts say.
A child at the preschool near where two Americans were killed and two kidnapped, in Matamoros, Mexico, Wednesday, March 8, 2023. (Alejandro Cegarra/The New York Times)
"There is no doubt that there are doubts about the veracity of these messages," says Cecilia Farfán Méndez, a security researcher in Mexico at the University of California at San Diego.
But if it is real, it would be a remarkable twist in a crime that has become a major international episode, prompting calls from Republican lawmakers to allow the United States to use military force to combat Mexican
cartels.
The four Americans, Latavia Washington McGee, 33;
Shaeed Woodard, 33;
Zindell Brown, 28;
and Eric James Williams, 38, were kidnapped last Friday after gunmen shot at their car at an intersection in Matamoros, in the state of Tamaulipas.
They had gone to Mexico to accompany McGee, who was scheduled to undergo
cosmetic surgery that day,
according to his relatives.
On Tuesday, four days after the attack, Mexican authorities found the Americans.
McGee and Williams were alive and returned to the United States later that day.
Woodard and Brown were dead;
their bodies were returned to US authorities on Thursday, Tamaulipas state attorney Irving Barrios said on Twitter.
Criminal groups in Mexico
do not typically attack
Americans, considering it to be a very risky move due to the enormous attention it garners from the media and law enforcement.
Investigators have considered various explanations for the crime, including the theory that it could have been a case of
mistaken identity.
The letter found Thursday claims to be written by the
Escorpiones
faction of the powerful
Gulf cartel
that controls Tamaulipas.
He attributed the attack to the "indiscipline" of people who acted "against the rules" with which the Gulf cartel "has always operated."
"The Scorpion Group of the Gulf Cartel strongly condemns the events that occurred on Friday, March 3, in which an innocent working mother unfortunately died and 4 US citizens were kidnapped, of whom 2 died," the letter said.
Local media outlets have identified the murdered Mexican woman as Areli Pablo Servando, 33, who worked in a business that offers photocopying services.
The city of Matamoros, located across the border from Brownsville, Texas, is ravaged by cartel violence.
Locals complain that they often go to sleep to the sound of gunshots echoing through the air.
The Gulf cartel has managed to infiltrate almost every aspect of life in the area, recruiting young locals into its ranks and becoming a major, if ruthless, employer.
c.2023 The New York Times Company
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