Update on Kidnapped Americans

Two of the four Americans kidnapped last week amid a cartel-related shootout in the Mexican border city Matamoros were found dead yesterday in a field outside the town. The two survivors, one of whom is wounded, were discovered inside a house near the field and brought quickly back to Brownsville, Texas, across the border.

Authorities said the Americans were kidnapped—and possibly mistaken for Haitian drug smugglers—amid a shootout between factions of the Gulf cartel, who operates in the area; one of the victims reportedly died from gunshot wounds at the scene. The group traveled from South Carolina to legally enter Tamaulipas province for a health procedure, which is generally less expensive than in neighboring Texas. The State Department warns Americans not to travel to the province due to the risk of kidnapping; estimates suggest hundreds of Americans are kidnapped in Mexico every year.

Mexico's president announced the country's security ministry, as well as the American FBI, had detained a suspect in the kidnapping yesterday.