| 2023 Matamoros kidnappings | |
|---|---|
| Part of the Mexican drug war | |
| Location | Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico |
| Date | 3–7 March 2023 |
| Deaths | 3 |
| Injured | 2 |
| Charges | 5 |
On 3 March 2023, four Americans were kidnapped in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico. [1] A U.S. official said they were likely mistaken for Haitian drug smugglers by members of a drug cartel. [2]
The four U.S. citizens—Shaeed Woodard, Zindell Brown, Eric Williams, and Latavia "Tay" McGee—were all African American residents of the state of South Carolina. [3] [4] On the morning of 3 March 2023, they crossed the border for McGee to undergo a cosmetic surgical procedure. Shortly after, their minivan was intercepted by a group of gunmen in central Matamoros and the four were bundled onto the bed of a pickup truck. [5] A Mexican bystander, Arely Pablo Servando, was killed when she was struck by a stray bullet during the abduction. [6] [7] According to Tamaulipas Governor Américo Villarreal, the cartel moved the kidnapped victims around in an effort to create confusion and avoid efforts to rescue them, and took them to a medical clinic at some point. [8]
On 7 March 2023, the missing Americans were located by security forces in El Tecolote, an ejido 10 km (6.2 mi) southeast of where they had been abducted in Matamoros. [9] Woodard and Brown were dead. Williams had three gunshot wounds to his leg and McGee had no physical injuries; the two were taken to the border shortly after their discovery and hospitalized in Texas. [10] [11] A 24-year-old male from Valle Hermoso, Tamaulipas, allegedly found guarding them, was taken into custody [5] [12] and charged with aggravated kidnapping. [13]
In the early morning of 9 March, five men with their hands tied were found abandoned at the site of the original abduction in downtown Matamoros. [14] [13] An accompanying message, purportedly from the Grupo Escorpión faction of the Gulf Cartel, identified them as the perpetrators and extended an apology to the families of the victims on both sides of the border and to the people of Matamoros in general. [15] [16] [17] The five were later charged by the state prosecution service with aggravated kidnapping and homicide. [13]
U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina responded to the incident by calling on the United States to add drug cartels to the Foreign Terrorist Organizations list, while also pressuring the Mexican government to destroy the cartels or have the United States military intervene. [14]
In response, President President Andrés Manuel López Obrador described any form of foreign interference as "an offense to the people of Mexico" and threatened to launch an information campaign asking Mexicans and Latinos in the United States not to vote for Republican officials until they stopped threatening to intervene in the country. [18] Some opposition politicians and human rights activists expressed indignation at the speed with which the missing Americans were located, in contrast to the many thousands of other victims of forced disappearances in the country whose cases remain unsolved. [19]
Prior to the incident, the state of Tamaulipas and five others were already on the U.S. State Department's "Do Not Travel" advisory list. [20] [21] On 11 March, in response to the Matamoros kidnappings and the disappearance of three women from Texas in the same area in late February, the Texas Department of Public Safety urged people in the state to refrain from traveling anywhere in Mexico during the upcoming spring break holiday because of ongoing drug cartel violence and other criminal activity. [22] [23]
Matamoros, officially known as Heroica Matamoros, is a city in the northeastern Mexican state of Tamaulipas, and the municipal seat of the homonymous municipality. It is on the southern bank of the Rio Grande, directly across the border from Brownsville, Texas, United States. Matamoros is the second largest city in the state of Tamaulipas. As of 2016, Matamoros had a population of 520,367. In addition, the Matamoros–Brownsville Metropolitan Area has a population of 1,387,985, making it the 4th largest metropolitan area on the Mexico–US border. Matamoros is the 39th largest city in Mexico and anchors the second largest metropolitan area in Tamaulipas.
Osiel Cárdenas Guillén is a Mexican drug lord and the former leader of the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas. Originally a mechanic in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, he entered the cartel by killing Juan García Abrego's friend and competitor Salvador Gómez, after the former's arrest in 1996. As confrontations with rival groups heated up, Osiel Cárdenas sought and recruited over 30 deserters from the Grupo Aeromóvil de Fuerzas Especiales to form the cartel's armed wing. Los Zetas served as the hired private mercenary army of the Gulf Cartel.
Los Zetas is a Mexican criminal syndicate, formerly as one of the most dangerous of Mexico's drug cartels. They are known for engaging in brutally violent "shock and awe" tactics such as beheadings, torture, and indiscriminate murder. While primarily concerned with drug trafficking, the organization also runs profitable sex and gun rackets. Los Zetas also operate through protection rackets, assassinations, extortion, kidnappings and other illegal activities. The organization is based in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, directly across the border from Laredo, Texas. The origins of Los Zetas date back to the late 1990s, when commandos of the Mexican Army deserted their ranks and began working as the enforcement arm of the Gulf Cartel. In February 2010, Los Zetas broke away and formed their own criminal organization, rivalling the Gulf Cartel.
The Gulf Cartel is a criminal syndicate and drug trafficking organization in Mexico, and perhaps one of the oldest organized crime groups in the country. It is currently based in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, directly across the U.S. border from Brownsville, Texas.
Juan Nepomuceno Guerra Cárdenas was a Mexican drug lord who founded and led the Gulf Cartel for over 50 years. He is often considered the "godfather" of U.S–Mexico border cartels.
The timeline of some of the most relevant events in the Mexican drug war is set out below. Although violence between drug cartels had been occurring for three decades, the Mexican government held a generally passive stance regarding cartel violence through the 1980s and early 2000s.
Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sánchez, is a Mexican former drug lord and top leader of the criminal drug trafficking organization known as the Gulf Cartel. He was among Mexico's most-wanted drug lords.
Antonio Ezequiel Cárdenas Guillén, commonly referred to by his alias Tony Tormenta, was a Mexican drug lord and co-leader of the Gulf Cartel, a drug trafficking organization based in Tamaulipas. He headed the criminal group along with Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sánchez. Antonio was considered by Mexican security forces as one of Mexico's most-wanted men.
The 2010 San Fernando massacre, also known as the first massacre of San Fernando, was the mass murder of 72 undocumented immigrants by Los Zetas drug cartel in the village of El Huizachal in the municipality of San Fernando, Tamaulipas, Mexico. The 72 killed—58 men and 14 women—were mainly from Central and South America, and they were shot in the back of the head and then piled up together. The bodies were found inside a ranch on 24 August 2010 by the Mexican military after they engaged in an armed confrontation with members of a drug cartel. They received information of the place after an Ecuadorian survived a shot to the neck and face, faked his death, and then made his way out of the ranch and up to a military checkout to ask for help. There were only three survivors. Investigators later mentioned that the massacre was a result of the immigrants' refusal to work for Los Zetas, or to provide money for their release.
Mario Alberto Cárdenas Guillén is a former leader of the Mexican criminal group called the Gulf Cartel. He is the brother of Osiel Cárdenas Guillén and Antonio Cárdenas Guillén.
The 2011 San Fernando massacre, also known as the second massacre of San Fernando, was the mass murder of 193 people by Los Zetas drug cartel at La Joya ranch in the municipality of San Fernando, Tamaulipas, Mexico, in March 2011. Authorities investigating the massacre reported numerous hijackings of passenger buses on Mexican Federal Highway 101 in San Fernando, and the kidnapped victims were later killed and buried in 47 clandestine mass graves. The investigations began immediately after several suitcases and other baggage went unclaimed in Reynosa and Matamoros, Tamaulipas. On 6 April 2011, Mexican authorities exhumed 59 corpses from eight mass graves. By 7 June 2011, after a series of multiple excavations, a total of 193 bodies were exhumed from mass graves in San Fernando.
The infighting in the Gulf Cartel refers to a series of confrontations between the Metros and the Rojos, two factions within Gulf Cartel that engaged in a power struggle directly after the death of the drug lord Samuel Flores Borrego in September 2011. The infighting has lasted through 2013, although the Metros have gained the advantage and regained control of the major cities controlled by the cartel when it was essentially one organization.
Miguel Villarreal was a U.S.-born Mexican suspected drug lord and high-ranking leader of the Gulf Cartel, a criminal group based in Tamaulipas. He was the crime boss of Reynosa, Tamaulipas. Nicknamed El Gringo in reference to his U.S. nationality, Villarreal was identified by authorities as a Gulf Cartel leader in 2010, when he allegedly commanded cells that fought Los Zetas drug cartel in northeastern Mexico. By 2011, he served as the regional kingpin in Miguel Alemán, Tamaulipas and ordered several kidnappings and killings in the South Texas border area from Mexico.
Homero Enrique Cárdenas Guillén, also known by his aliases El Majadero and El Orejón, was a Mexican suspected drug lord and alleged leader of the Gulf Cartel, a drug trafficking organization. He is the brother of the former Gulf Cartel leaders Antonio, Mario, and Osiel Cárdenas Guillen. During the late 1990s, Homero worked for the Gulf Cartel under the tutelage of his brothers. However, after several years of government crackdowns, the Gulf Cartel suffered severe drawbacks, including the death and arrests of Homero's brothers and allies. In August 2013, Homero became the de facto leader of the Gulf Cartel following the arrest of Mario Ramírez Treviño. However, he reportedly died of a heart attack on 28 March 2014.
On 9 July 2011, affiliates of the Gulf Cartel kidnapped 18 members of the Cázares family from three different households in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico. The women and children were released three days later, but the abductors kept five men. Forty-eight hours later, the Gulf Cartel contacted the family members who had been released to negotiate a ransom. After several days of negotiation and several ransom payments totaling US$100,000, the Cázares were called to deliver their final payment on 27 July. They sent the money to the kidnappers and waited at a specified location for a white van the kidnappers promised would deliver their remaining family members. However, the van never arrived and the phone the kidnappers used to contact the Cázares went out of service. The family then decided to contact the authorities for a criminal investigation.
On 9 November 1999, two agents from the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) were threatened at gunpoint and nearly killed in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico, by gunmen of the Gulf Cartel, a criminal group based in the area. The two agents traveled to Matamoros with an informant to gather intelligence on the operations of the Gulf Cartel. As they cruised through one of the properties owned by the criminal group, they noticed several vehicles following them. The agents were forced to a stop and were corralled by a convoy of eight vehicles, from which fifteen gunmen emerged and surrounded the agents' car. Some of them wore uniforms of the local police. Among the gunmen was the former kingpin Osiel Cárdenas Guillén, who recognized the informant and ordered the three of them to get out of their vehicle.
Adán Javier Medrano Rodríguez, also known as El Licenciado, was a Mexican convicted drug lord and former high-ranking member of the Gulf Cartel, a criminal group based in Tamaulipas, Mexico. He joined the cartel during the 1990s, and was a trusted enforcer of former kingpin Osiel Cárdenas Guillén. His roles in the cartel were managing drug shipments from Guatemala to Mexico, supervising murders ordered by Cárdenas, and coordinating cash transfers from the U.S. to Mexico.
José Manuel Garza Rendón, also known as La Brocha, is a Mexican convicted drug lord and former high-ranking member of the Gulf Cartel, a criminal group based in Tamaulipas, Mexico. In 1979, he was convicted of drug-related charges in the U.S. Back in Mexico in 1985, Garza Rendón joined the Federal Judicial Police; released in 1989, he joined the Gulf Cartel. His roles in the cartel were managing drug shipments from the U.S. to Mexico and serving as bodyguard to former kingpin Osiel Cárdenas Guillén.
Juan Carlos de la Cruz Reyna is a Mexican convicted criminal and former high-ranking member of the Gulf Cartel, a criminal group based in Tamaulipas, Mexico. He was also a senior member in Los Zetas, the Gulf Cartel's former paramilitary group. In the 1990s, de la Cruz Reyna was an officer in the Tamaulipas State Police while working as a hitman for the Gulf Cartel. After he left the agency in 1999, he became a bodyguard for former Gulf Cartel kingpin Osiel Cárdenas Guillén, and was eventually promoted to regional leader of the cartel in Tampico. He reportedly had policemen on his payroll, and managed international drug trafficking shipments from Central and South America.
Víctor Manuel Vázquez Mireles is a Mexican drug lord and high-ranking member of the Gulf Cartel, a criminal group based in Tamaulipas, Mexico. Vázquez Mireles joined the cartel during the 1990s and was a trusted enforcer of former kingpin Osiel Cárdenas Guillén. He started his career in the cartel as one of his bodyguards and was eventually placed in charge of operations in Tamaulipas and Veracruz. He was reportedly responsible for supervising the purchase of drugs intended to be smuggled into the U.S. for distribution and for arranging the assistance of corrupt law enforcement officials in the cartel's operations.
