TWO Americans who survived a violent kidnapping in Mexico have returned to the United States and have been taken to a hospital in Texas.
“The two survivors have since been repatriated back to the United States,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price said at a news conference Tuesday. “That occurred with the assistance of our Mexican partners, with the assistance of our officials in Mexico. We are in the process of working to repatriate the remains of the two Americans who were killed in this incident.”
The two surviving Americans were transported in Brownsville, Texas, ambulances with a law enforcement escort over the Veterans International Bridge and were seen leaving the bridge on the U.S. side of the border. From there, the two were taken to Valley Regional Medical Center in Brownsville to receive treatment, according to NBC News.
The news comes after it was revealed earlier Tuesday that two of the four Americans who were victims of the kidnapping died in the incident, Tamaulipas Gov. Americo Villarreal Anaya said, according to the Associated Press.
The four Americans were crossing from Brownsville into the Mexican city of Matamoros, Tamaulipas, on Friday when their vehicle began receiving gunfire shortly after entering Mexico. Video from the scene showed armed men believed to be members of a Mexican drug cartel loading the victims into the back of a white truck, with two of the victims appearing to be injured or dead as the men dragged their bodies across the pavement.
Another one of the victims was reportedly injured in the attack, while the fourth American was not injured. An innocent Mexican bystander was also killed in the incident, according to U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar.
