2 Americans killed, 2 survivors returned to U.S. after kidnapping in Mexico

Two of the four Americans kidnapped in Mexico last week were killed and two were returned to the U.S., the State Department confirmed on Tuesday.

“Two U.S. citizens were returned to the United States, the bodies of two other U.S. citizens killed in the same incident were also recovered,” department spokesperson Ned Price said during a news conference.

The four U.S. citizens, who have not been publicly identified, were kidnapped at gunpoint on Friday in Matamoros, in the state Tamaulipas, shortly after crossing the border into Mexico, officials said. A Mexican woman was also killed in the episode. The four Americans were later found in Ejido Longoreño, a rural area east of Matamoros, The Associated Press reported, after getting caught amid fighting between rival cartel groups last week.

“We’re providing all appropriate assistance to [the victims] and their families,” Price said on Tuesday. “We extend our deepest condolences to the family and loved ones of the deceased. We thank our Mexican and U.S. law enforcement partners for their efforts to find these innocent victims, and the task forward is to ensure that justice is done.”

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre also addressed the kidnapping on Tuesday.

“Since day one of this administration, we have been focused on disrupting transnational criminal organizations, including Mexican drug cartels and human smugglers,” Jean-Pierre said at the daily press briefing, adding the Biden administration had “imposed powerful new sanctions against cartel organizations in recent weeks.”

She declined to provide names of those abducted. "For the sake of privacy and out of respect to the families, we are going to refrain from further comment about those circumstances at this time," she said.