Texas

• Drug cartel violence is a serious concern to anyone traveling into Mexico.
• It follows the kidnapping of four Americans.
• Two were killed, while the other two were released uninjured.

Authorities in the US state of Texas have advised American citizens not to travel to Mexico during the spring break holidays for security reasons.

According to the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), drug cartel violence is a serious concern to anyone traveling into Mexico.

It follows the kidnapping of four Americans shortly after crossing the border last week.

Two were killed, while the other two were released uninjured.

Three American women who traveled to Mexico to sell garments at a market have gone missing for over two weeks.

“Drug cartel violence and other criminal activity represent a significant safety threat to anyone who crosses into Mexico right now,” said DPS Director Steven McCraw.

“Based on the volatile nature of cartel activity and the violence we are seeing there, we are urging individuals to avoid travel to Mexico at this time.”

When four Americans visited Matamoros, Mexico, earlier this month, they were kidnapped and two of them murdered by a drug cartel. In the shooting, a Mexican onlooker was also murdered.

The cartel involved has already apologized and turned over its own gunmen to authorities.

A note left with the cartel gunmen, who had been left on the roadside, accused them of acting “under their own decision-making and lack of discipline” as well as supposedly breaking cartel rules over “protecting the lives of the innocent”.

It was signed by the “Scorpions Group”, a splinter faction of the powerful Gulf Cartel.

Mexican investigators say the gang members mistook the Americans for competitors and opened fire on them as they attempted to flee.

The incident has the potential to deteriorate relations between the two countries.

A Republican lawmaker has pushed President Joe Biden’s administration to authorize American troops to cross the border to fight drug gangs.

The suggestions were labeled “arrogant” by Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

Similarly, two Texas sisters and a companion remain missing in Mexico after crossing the border last month to sell clothes at a flea market, according to US officials.

After days of silence, the spouse of one of the women reported their abduction to police in Texas.

“We don’t know if they made it there,” Roel Bermea, police chief in the border town of Penitas.”

The FBI had been notified, he added.

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