Mexico Indicts 5 Men Turned Over By Cartel For Killing Americans
Nicholas Reimann, Forbes Staff
A Mexican court indicted five men accused of kidnapping and killing Americans earlier this month, days after a wing of Mexico’s Gulf Cartel left the men tied up on a Matamoros street along with a sign blaming them for the killings, according to a local prosecutor, in an incident that has flamed tensions between the U.S. and its southern neighbor.
The men—who have only been identified by their given names and a last initial—have been charged with kidnapping and international homicide, the attorney general’s office in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas said in a statement.
Prosecutors and the cartel say the men carried out the attack and kidnapping on four Americans who crossed from Brownsville, Texas, into Matamoros on March 3—killing two and injuring one, while a female bystander was also killed.
The men have acknowledged they were involved in the attack but claim they did not shoot the Americans, according to the Wall Street Journal.
What prompted the attack remains unclear, but an apology letter the cartel left alongside the tied up suspects suggested it was done by mistake.
Prosecutors said the men will remain in custody for the next six months as the investigation proceeds.
The Americans reportedly ventured into Mexico so the lone uninjured survivor—LaTavia Washington McGee—could get a tummy tuck cosmetic procedure, while three men traveled with her to drive and aid her recovery.
The FBI said the Americans quickly found themselves under fire after crossing the border, and were pulled from their rental van into another vehicle that fled the scene.
Authorities found the Americans four days later at a safe-house outside Matamoros, where two of the men—Zindell Brown and Shaeed Woodard—were found dead and Eric James Williams was discovered with gunshot wounds to his legs.
Attorney General Merrick Garland has vowed the Justice Department will be “ruthless” in pursuing those responsible for the attack, though no one has been charged in the U.S. as of yet.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador blasted Republican lawmakers last week after they suggested sending the U.S. military to Mexico to combat cartels, saying: “We are not a protectorate of the United States, nor a colony of the United States.”
The president insisted at a news conference that “Mexico is safer than the United States,” even though the country’s murder rate—28 per 100,000 people—is four times higher than the United States, according to the World Bank.
Folks, what if I told you this same situation happened in our past and that our response was to send our military into Mexico?
That is exactly what happened 100 years ago.
https://americanhistory.si.edu/blog/pershings-mexican-expedition
General Pershing’s Mexican Expedition to capture Pancho Villa predates his World War I career
By Magdalena Mieri and Erin Blasco,
The small American town of Columbus, New Mexico, was the site of a major event 100 years ago.
On March 9, 1916, spurred by events in the Mexican Revolution, General Francisco “Pancho” Villa’s forces attacked the camp of the 13th Cavalry Regiment.
Who was this Pancho Villa?
Pancho Villa (1878-1923) was a famed Mexican revolutionary and guerilla leader.
Born Doroteo Arango on June 5, 1878, in Río Grande, Mexico. Villa helped out on his parents’ farm. After his father’s death, he became head of the household and shot a man who was harassing one of his sisters. He fled, but was caught and imprisoned. Villa escaped again and later became a bandit.
While living as a fugitive, Villa joined Francisco Madero’s successful uprising against the Mexican dictator, Porfirio Díaz. Because of his skills as a fighter and a leader he was made a colonel.
Another rebellion removed Madero from power in 1912 and Villa was almost executed for his efforts to defend the former government. He fled to the United States for a time, but he later returned to Mexico and formed his own military force known as Division del Norte (Division of the North).
He joined forces with other revolutionaries Venustiano Carranza and Emiliano Zapata (“Better to die on your feet than to live a lifetime on your knees”) to overthrow Victoriano Huerta.
The different forces were not wholly successful at working together, and Villa and Carranza became rivals((Like rival Cartel gangs today).
For a number of years, he was involved in a series of clashes with other Mexican military groups and even fought with U.S. troops from 1916 to 1917.
In reaction to these attacks, President Woodrow Wilson appointed General John Pershing as commander of a U.S. Army expeditionary force that was to capture Villa and police the U.S.-Mexico border.
Called the Punitive Expedition at the time, this was just the beginning of a lengthy search for Villa that never resulted in his capture, now known as the Mexican Expedition. It took place March 14, 1916, to February 7, 1917.
Why did Villa attack? It’s complicated, but here’s a quick summary. The Mexican Revolution was an uprising that impacted the social, economic, and political life of both Mexico and the United States.
The United States had become heavily invested in Mexican mining, railroads, and oil operations and protected these investments through military and political interventions in Mexico.
In support of their people, Mexican revolutionary leaders sought land reforms and the nationalization of these operations. At one time, President Wilson supported Villa and then later withdrew support. Angered by the reversal, Villa attacked.
In January 1916, he kidnapped 18 Americans from a Mexican train and slaughtered them. A few weeks later, in March 1916, Villa led an army of about 1,500 guerillas across the border to stage a brutal raid against the small American town of Columbus, New Mexico. Villa and his men killed 19 people and left the town in flames.
According to an article in Prologue magazine, published by the U.S. National Archives, “Why Villa chose Columbus as a target for his most daring raid is unclear. The small town had only one hotel, a few stores, some adobe houses, and a population of 350 Americans and Mexicans.”
It was the Columbus attack that moved President Wilson to take military action.
General John Pershing is better known for his leadership during World War I, but the part of Pershing’s military career spent in Mexico is very interesting.
Pershing’s command was closest to Columbus, New Mexico, when the attack happened. His forces were to include “two columns that included infantry, cavalry, field artillery, engineers, the First Aero Squadron with eight airplanes, field hospitals, wagon and ambulance companies, and signal detachments,” according to the article in Prologue magazine.
Photos in the collection of the Library of Congress include shots of American soldiers preparing to depart on “scouting expeditions” by plane, baking bread in “field kitchens,” and posing on motorcycles.
So who was this General John Pershing? A Missouri boy!
General John Joseph “Black Jack” Pershing began his rise through the ranks of the U.S. Army with distinguished service in the Spanish-American War and the Philippines.
After leading U.S. forces in pursuit of the Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa, Pershing served as commander of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) during World War I.
Pershing was born in 1860 near the small Missouri town of Laclede, in North central Missouri near Chillicothe.
While still a teenager, he got a job teaching at a school for African American students. After seeing an advertisement for the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Pershing applied and won acceptance in 1882. He graduated four years later, ranking 30th in a class of 77.
Pershing spent the first years of his military fighting in U.S. campaigns against the Apache and Sioux Native Americans in New Mexico, Arizona and other outposts in the West.
In Montana, he was promoted to first lieutenant of the 10th Cavalry, becoming one of the first white officers to command an all-Black regiment. Pershing often expressed praise and admiration for the Black soldiers he commanded, which may have earned him the nickname “Black Jack”—although an alternative theory holds it was due to his strict attitude toward discipline.
After spending several years teaching military science and tactics at the University of Nebraska (where he also obtained his law degree) and returning to West Point as an instructor, Pershing headed to Cuba to fight in the Spanish-American War.
In 1898, he and the 10th Cavalry Regiment fought bravely in the Battles of Santiago and San Juan Hill alongside Theodore Roosevelt and his “Rough Riders.” Pershing earned a Silver Star for his service and was promoted to the rank of captain.
After the U.S. victory in the Spanish-American War, Pershing sailed for the Philippines, where he led American soldiers in repeated efforts to subdue the rebellious Moro tribes.
In 1906, Roosevelt (now president) promoted Pershing to brigadier general, vaulting him over more than 800 other more senior officers.
After another tour in the Philippines from 1906-13, Pershing returned to the United States, where he was stationed at the Presidio in San Francisco and placed in command of the Army’s 8th Brigade.
In August 1915, while Pershing and his men were on assignment in Fort Bliss, Texas to defend the southern border from attacks by Mexican bandits, a fire broke out at the Presidio. Pershing’s wife, Helen Frances, and three daughters died of smoke inhalation; only his son, Warren, survived.
Devastated by the loss, Pershing threw himself into his work. In March 1916, President Woodrow Wilson tasked him with leading an expedition of nearly 12,000 soldiers into Mexico in pursuit of Pancho Villa, whose forces had recently raided the town of Columbus, New Mexico.
Pershing’s forces were restricted by U.S. unwillingness to incite war with Mexico (sound familiar?). Even though Villa remained at large after nearly a year’s pursuit, Pershing earned Wilson’s praise for his handling of the expedition.
On February 5, 1917, the expedition officially ended. Though Villa was never captured, General Pershing’s men were exposed to military training.
The author of the Prologue magazine article points out that “Many of the same men who served with Pershing in Mexico accompanied him to France.”
After General Pershing’s forces left, the Mexican Revolution continued. Between 500,000 and one million Mexicans fled the violence and turmoil of the revolution and immigrated to the United States in search of work and safe living conditions. (Sound familiar?)
Decades later, in the 1960s, revolutionary leaders such as Emiliano Zapata and Pancho Villa became inspiring symbols in struggles for social equality and political rights for many Mexican Americans.
So, there you have it folks. History repeats itself once again and we have learned absolutely nothing.
Side note: After the United States entered World War I in 1917, Wilson bypassed five other major-generals to appoint Pershing as commander of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF). U.S. armed forces expanded quickly during the conflict, and Pershing was tasked with turning some 2 million relatively inexperienced troops into a professional fighting force. Soon after he arrived in France with the first AEF troops in June 1917, Germany defeated Russia, freeing up large numbers of German soldiers to face the Allies on the Western Front.