Marjorie Taylor Greene calls for US military to rescue Americans kidnapped in Mexico with ‘strike’ on cartels

Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox

Get our free Inside Washington email

Please enter a valid email address

Please enter a valid email address

SIGN UP

I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy

Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene has called for the US military to "take out" the Mexicancartels after it was announced that four American tourists were kidnapped while in Mexico.

The FBI announced that the Americans were kidnapped on 3 March in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico.

The four Americans were driving a white van with North Carolina plates when they crossed the border near Brownsville, Texas. Shortly after crossing, the group was fired on by unidentified assailants. The four were then taken by the kidnappers and driven away from the scene of the attack, according to Newsweek.

Ms Greene responded to the situation by suggesting the US military cross the border and "strategically strike" at the Mexican drug cartels. It is currently unknown who took the Americans.

"Our military should be stationed at our southern border," she wrote. "We should strategically strike and take out the Mexican Cartels, not the Mexican government or their people, but the Mexican Cartels which control them all. They are international terrorists and criminals murdering Americans everyday with drugs and crime!"

She complained that the cartels are "making BILLIONS" through drug and human trafficking.

"Our military is competent and should take them out swiftly," she wrote. "Make an example out of these monsters."

Ms Greene then compared the Mexican drug cartels to the Islamic extremist militia Isis, saying the only difference between the groups is that "the Cartels are on our southern border”.

The Congresswoman did not mention the kidnapping directly.

The US State Department includes Tamaulipas on its list of "Do Not Travel" locations, warning that Americans in those regions were at risk of "crime and kidnapping”.

The State Department noted that the Mexican state is rife with organised crime, carjackings, kidnapping, extortion, sexual assault, murders, and gun fights.

"Criminal groups target public and private passenger buses, as well as private automobiles traveling through Tamaulipas, often taking passengers and demanding ransom payments," according to the State Department. "Heavily armed members of criminal groups often patrol areas of the state and operate with impunity particularly along the border region from Reynosa to Nuevo Laredo."

US officials are aware of the kidnapping. Ken Salazar, the US ambassador to Mexico, said US law enforcement from "numerous agencies" were working with Mexican officials "to secure the safe return. of our compatriots”.

Andrés Manuel López Obrador the Mexican president, said he hopes to see the confrontation resolved without violence.

"There was a confrontation between groups and they were kidnapped ... I think it will get resolved," Mr López Obrador said. "That's what I hope."