The FBI had reported on Sunday (Monday NZ) it was searching with Mexican authorities for the missing Americans, who were kidnapped on Friday (Saturday NZ).
A relative of one of them said they had travelled together from South Carolina so one of them could get a tummy tuck from a doctor in the border city of Matamoros, across from Brownsville, Texas.
Shortly after entering Mexico they were caught amid fighting between rival cartel groups in the city.
A video showed them being loaded into the back of a pickup truck by gunmen. Mexican officials said a Mexican woman also died in Friday’s crossfire.
Villarreal confirmed the deaths by phone during a morning news conference by Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, saying details about the four abducted Americans had been confirmed by prosecutors.
Obrador complained about the US media’s coverage of the missing Americans, accusing them of sensationalising things.
“It’s not like that when they kill Mexicans in the United States; they go quiet like mummies.”
“It’s very unfortunate, they [the US government] has the right to protest like they have,” he said. “We really regret that this happens in our country.”
The shootings illustrate the terror that has prevailed for years in Matamoros, a city dominated by factions of the powerful Gulf drug cartel who often fight among themselves.
Amid the violence, thousands of Mexicans have disappeared in Tamaulipas state alone.
- AP
