Matamoros is located on the south bank of the Rio Grande, directly across the border from Brownsville, Tex. The 3.1-mile distance between the two cities can be crossed in about 17 minutes according to Google Maps.
The FBI, which is investigating the kidnapping alongside Mexican law enforcement agencies, is offering a $50,000 reward as authorities seek the gunmen’s arrest and the return of the victims.
Here is what we know about Matamoros and reasons why people cross the U.S.-Mexico border, including for health care.
What is Matamoros known for?
Every day, tens of thousands of people either walk or drive across the bridge from Brownsville, Tex., to Matamoros, home to 580,000 people, for doctor’s appointments, commerce or mundane activities such as having a lunch. The glistening green Rio Grande river snakes between the two sister cities.
Officially known as “Heroica Matamoros,” the city is located the northeastern state of Tamaulipas, one of the most crime-ridden states in Mexico and one of six Mexican states to which the State Department advises Americans against traveling, citing the risk of crime and kidnapping.
“Criminal groups target public and private passenger buses, as well as private automobiles traveling through Tamaulipas, often taking passengers and demanding ransom payments,” the department’s latest travel advisory says.
Tamaulipas is known for its long history of crime and lawlessness, being a main route for migrants headed to the United States, as well as for the bustling and integrated border life shared by Mexicans and Americans on both sides of the border.
In the past decade or so, Tamaulipas has become emblematic of Mexico’s drug-related violence and home to some of the worst human atrocities in the country, where criminal groups and drug gangs routinely fight turf wars, terrorize communities and run kidnapping rackets.
Most recently, the city became known for its squalid makeshift tent camps where thousands of asylum seekers were forced to wait while they made their cases under former president Donald Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” program.
In 2010 and 2011, a series of migrant massacres in the city of San Fernando, roughly 87 miles south of Matamoros, stunned the country and the world. In 2010, authorities discovered the bodies of 72 migrants from Central America who had been killed by the Zetas, a ruthless group that broke from the Gulf drug cartel in the mid-2000s.
In 2011, gunmen yanked at least 193 people — some of them Central American migrants — off buses, bludgeoned them to death and dumped their bodies in 47 clandestine graves. The two cases of mass killings of civilians at remote ranches 90 minutes south of Texas marked a new level of barbarity in Mexico’s U.S.-backed drug war.
Matamoros was not spared of this wave of violence. In 2011, 18 members of a family were taken from three homes in the city on the morning of July 9. While the women and children were freed days later, the men were never returned despite several payments of ransom.
Although the city is currently in the hands of the Gulf Cartel, Mexican authorities have made solid progress in improving security in recent years.
According to official data, the number of kidnappings and homicides, both locally and across the state, have significantly dropped in recent years. Currently, there are much fewer high-profile attacks like Friday’s kidnappings and residents enjoy a relative peace.
Why do Americans cross the border for health care?
Pharmacies, dentists and optometrists begin appearing almost as soon as you cross the border into northern Mexico. Numbers are difficult to come by but Americans regularly cross the border for health care including cosmetic surgeries, experts said.
One of the most common health-care reasons for Americans to cross the border is to visit the dentist, according to academics studying the U.S.-Mexico border.
“It’s a very common phenomenon to travel to Reynosa or Matamoros for medicines, or medical procedures, and especially to see dentists because it’s less expensive than in Texas,” said Nestor Rodriguez, a sociology professor at the University of Texas at Austin. “Some Mexican-Americans may feel more familiar with Mexican doctors rather than with American ones.”
Prescription medicines are far cheaper in Mexico, said Kathleen Staud, a professor emerita of political science at the University of Texas at El Paso.
For people who can’t afford medical insurance — Texas is among a handful of states that have refused to extend Medicaid — health care in Mexico is an affordable option, said Staud.
Mexican pharmacies offer some advantages over those in the United States, said Staud. These include an on-site medical doctor who can offer an inexpensive medical intervention, in Spanish. There is a caveat that people traveling for medicines or care must have time to wait in lines to cross the border.
Another advantage of Mexican pharmacies is that they offer many prescription medicines over the counter; that means patients can skip the wait time and and cost of a doctor’s appointment.
“The pharmacy business is a thriving on one on the border,” said Ricardo Ainslie, a professor of border culture and history at the University of Texas at Austin. “Matamoros is a big destination for health care, and so are towns and cities 50 miles west of Matamoros.”
Medicines for high blood pressure, diabetes, and antibiotics are among those that Americans search for across the border, said Jose M. Villarreal, a professor of Chicano Latino studies at University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.
Others may also be looking for painkillers such as Oxycotin, said Ainslie. “People with addiction problems, who don’t have prescriptions or don’t want to be tracked regarding their consumption may travel to Matamoros,” he said.
Some people also travel to Mexico for surgical procedures. Ainslie said northern Mexico has several reputable medical schools where people may travel “to access qualified health care at the fraction of the cost of American health care or surgeries despite it being completely out of pocket.”
What are other reasons people in border towns regularly move between U.S. and Mexico?
People living in border towns such as Brownsville, Tex., or Matamoros are often bi-national and for generations have been traveling to see family or friends, or for work and school, according to border studies experts.
“There are people who travel regularly from cities in Texas to Reynosa or Matamoros, or other towns in between in order to meet family,” said Rodriguez. “There are so many families that are divided by the border.”
People living on the American side may also cross the border for more “casual reasons,” he said. Sometimes Rodriguez’s students cross the border for a good meal on the Mexican side.
Similarly, Amelie Ramirez, the director of the Institute of Health Promotion Research in San Antonio, said Hispanics often cross the Texas border to purchase groceries.
“Since the cartel violence grew in these areas, I would guess the percentage of White Americans traveling to Mexico has dropped due to security fears,” said Ainslie. “But it still exists, and people regularly travel to Matamoros for all kinds of reasons.”
According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics at least 948, 895 people entered the United States through the Brownsville border in January 2023; in January of 2000 this number was at least 1,809,300.
Kevin Sieff and Leo Sands contributed to this report.
*This story has not been edited by The Infallible staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.
