(RoyalPatriot.com )- After four Americans were kidnapped in Mexico last week, Texas Democrat Congressman Vincente Gonzalez on Monday called for the US to start treating Mexican drug cartels as terrorists.
The four Americans, Zindell Brown, Eric James Williams, Latavia “Tay” McGee, and Shaeed Woodard, entered Mexico from Brownsville, Texas, and were driving into the city of Matamoros last Friday when they were kidnapped after a deadly shootout by armed men who threw them into a pickup truck, the Associated Press reported.
After a massive search by Mexican soldiers and National Guard troops, the Americans were found on Tuesday in a small house in Lagunona just outside of Matamoros. However, only two, Williams and McGee, were still alive. The body of one victim was found inside the house while the other was found outside, ABC News reported.
In an interview on CNN’s “The Lead” on Monday, Congressman Gonzalez said last Friday’s kidnapping was only the “tip of the iceberg” and not an “isolated incident.” He said since the USMCA trade agreement was signed, he has said that it was a “missed opportunity” that the negotiations for the agreement weren’t used to discuss security issues with Mexico.
Gonzalez said it is a “huge concern” that the country’s “second-largest trading partner” has a violence problem. He said the city of McAllen, Texas in his district along the border is the third-safest in the country while just across the border in Mexico, “it’s a dramatic difference.” He said he has not crossed the border in 17 years due to the violence in Mexico.
Calling for a “more aggressive approach,” Gonzalez said the US needs to target Mexican cartels like the terrorists they are.
Gonzalez urged both the US and Mexican governments to work together on an “aggressive, meaningful approach” to addressing the cartel violence, warning that it has already become “an economic national security liability.”
