UNDER ATTACK

American Family Attacked, 13-Year-Old Killed in Mexico in Alleged Cartel Ambush

The family was reportedly returning to the U.S. from a vacation in Mexico where they were visiting relatives in the state of San Luis Potosi.

A 13-year-old was killed and three other people were wounded after an American family returning to the U.S. from a vacation in Mexico came under attack by armed gunmen on Saturday night. The attorney general’s office in the state of Tamaulipas did not immediately release the names of the victims, but said that the child was a U.S. citizen and the parents were permanent residents of the U.S. The family was reportedly traveling in a Chevrolet SUV with Oklahoma state plates on a high-risk highway that connects the city of Mier with Nueva Ciudad Guerrero—an area that is often disrupted by criminal groups. El Diario reported that the gunmen were drug traffickers with the Cártel del Noreste. The attack took place just south of Texas as the family was returning from a holiday visit to relatives in the state of San Luis Potosi. In November, nine U.S. citizens, including six children, were killed in an alleged cartel ambush in northern Mexico. All victims were members of a fundamentalist Mormon community in the country.