MEXICO — The U.S. State Department released a travel advisory for Mexico after four U.S. citizens were kidnapped at gunpoint.

The gunman fired upon their vehicle and kidnapped the four U.S. citizens in the northern Mexico border city of Matamoros.

On Friday, March 6 the four American’s had entered Matamoros, across from Brownsville, Texas. The U.S. citizens were traveling in a white minivan with North Carolina license plates.

On Sunday, March 5, the FBI San Antonio Division office said the vehicle came under fire shortly after it entered Mexico. Furthermore, the gunman took all four Americans from the scene.

The FBI is now offering a $50,000 reward for the victims’ return and the culprits’ arrest. Meanwhile, the U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, Ken Salazar said, the Americans were kidnapped at gunpoint and that an “innocent” Mexican citizen died in the attack.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has said, “The Americans had crossed the border to buy medicine and ended up caught in the crossfire between two armed groups.”

In addition, there was a shootout in Matamoros on Friday, March 3 between warring factions of the Gulf drug cartel. The shootout was so bad that the U.S. Consulate issued an alert about the danger, and local authorities warned people to shelter in place. It is unclear how the abductions could be connected the the shootouts on Friday.  

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