The startling move by a Mexican drug cartel to publicly apologize after four U.S. citizens were abducted in braod daylight last week, leaving two dead, and say it turned over the purported kidnappers is most likely an attempt to “turn down the heat,” experts told NBC News on Friday.
While the Gulf cartel doesn’t run the Mexican city of Matamoros, the city just south of Brownsville, Texas, where the four Americans were taken last week, they rule the streets, the experts said.
“I wouldn’t go as far as to say the Gulf cartel is the de facto government in this part of Mexico, but they certainly act with impunity, and most of the time what they do doesn’t attract much international attention,” said Andrew Rudman, director of the Mexico Institute at the Wilson Center, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank.
The cartel condemned the violence in a letter obtained by The Associate Press and said they had turned over members who were involved. A senior law enforcement official told NBC News that U.S. authorities believe the letter is legitimate.
“The Gulf Cartel Grupo Escorpiones strongly condemns the events of Friday, March 3 in which unfortunately an innocent working mother died and four American citizens were kidnapped, of which two died,” a translation of the letter says. “For this reason, we have decided to hand over those involved and directly responsible for the events who at all times acted under their own determination and indiscipline and against the rules in which the CDG has always operated.”
A law enforcement official with knowledge of the matter said a woman in the group had been seeking a cosmetic medical procedure and that cartel gunmen targeted the group in a case of mistaken identity.
Rudman said the Gulf cartel crossed a line with the deadly abduction and stoked the wrath of the U.S. government and created an international incident.
“My guess is that by issuing the apology and turning over some people they’re trying to turn the heat down,” Rudman said. “Whether these are the actual suspects or some fall guys remains to be seen.”
Ricardo Ainslie, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin who made the 2007 documentary film “Ya Basta!: Kidnapped in Mexico,” agreed.
