In Matamoros, the four kidnapped Americans taken by cartel henchmen were rescued, but horrifically enough, two were murdered, victims in Mexico's vicious cartel war brought on by Joe Biden's open border.

News reports, citing an anonymous U.S. official, say that the four, who were black U.S. citizens from South Carolina, were mistaken by the cartel killers aligned with the Gulf Cartel for rival Haitian drug dealers.

Now this is possible, but it doesn't seem complete as a theory. It implicitly suggests that the killings never would have happened otherwise.

Reading between the lines, this seems to say:

Don't be in Mexico at the wrong place and the wrong time.

Don't drive while black in Mexico.

It was all an unfortunate and unlucky accident, entirely preventable, entirely controllable.

Maybe. But there are a few details that suggest otherwise. Based on the cartel behavior in this dreadful incident, it's still possible that they may have been targeted for being American.

Start with three details:

First, the Americans were driving around lost in their white van when they were blocked and then their car smashed from behind by cartel henchmen, a classic capture-them technique. By one report, officials knew that their vehicle with its North Carolina license plates was followed from the moment they entered Mexico. A hail of gunfire followed, and two of the Americans were killed, then all four were taken away by cartel kidnappers.

One Mexican columnist, writing in El Universal, argued that kidnappers don't kill their targets first and seek ransoms later, so it probably was happenstance, perhaps with a political motive.

Carlos Seoane argued this, via Google Translate:

 Perhaps he doesn't remember another well-known kidnapping of Americans, that of Colombia's FARC Marxist narcoterrorists, who happen to be allies of the Mexican cartels, who began their extended kidnapping of three Americans who whose Cessna was shot down over the Colombian jungle while on a drug-eradicating mission in 2003. One American was killed first, execution-style (the Times account, as early reporting, was uncertain about that but yes, it was execution-style), as was one Colombian military national who was with them. The other three were taken away in by the narcoguerrillas, for a horrific four-year ordeal in the jungle until their spectacular rescue, described well in their memoir, "Out of Captivity."

Cartels and narcoguerrillas learn from one another and know that killing a couple of people first works wonders at keeping the remainders taken away docile. That's their technique.

Second, it's significant that the cartel henchmen hauled off all four Americans after the assault, instead of left them splattered in the street, as is the practice for rival drug gangs. Why would they haul off the bodies of the dead Americans? Quite likely because they wanted a ransom for their return. The families grieving might very well pay it. South Carolina is not that far from Mexico (and not that they would care), but they could have insisted that the family come to Matamoros and leave them a ransom. They wouldn't have much use for the bodies otherwise. Note that they left the body of a third victim, a 22-year-old Mexican mother, who was a bystander, in a pool of blood behind. She probably wouldn't be much good for a ransom like the rich gringos coming into the country for cosmetic surgery.

Third, the four Americans, two alive, two dead (imagine the impact of that on the living Americans) were all bounced from stash house to stash house, in a move to elude capture. That's a classic "express kidnapping" technique, described well in Jonathan Jakubovicz's award-winning film "Secuestro Express" about a horrific express kidnapping ordeal of two young people in Venezuela. The dirtbags who dragged the Americans from stash house to stash house knew exactly how this was done, and had their network of stash houses all ready to go.

Maybe they did it spontaneously as they discovered after the attack that their kidnappees weren't Haitian drug dealers (it's unlikely they would have kidnapped often-destitute Haitians anyway for ransom so they likely knew that they were dealing with Americans when they dragged their victims off) but it would have taken some impressive improvising, a shift of organizational mission, done on the fly, to get that done. Perhaps they have that kind of mojo, but the odds for error on this are huge.

It seems at least as likely that the cartel targeted the victims because they were American, because the cartels want to challenge the Mexican government, which is dealing with fallout from multiple directions, from Sen. Lindsey Graham irresponsibly calling for an invasion of Mexico force as if the U.S. were somehow "good" at winning wars like this one, to angry Mexican nationals who point out that the Mexican cops rescue kidnapping victims when they want to -- and they ignore the thousands of Mexican kidnapping victims. 

According to a report that ran in El Universal, through Google Translate:

Third, the Matamoros kidnapping got a lot of attention in the states -- from the kind of people who don't read State Department warnings to stay out Mexico. At least some are paying attention to this one -- and staying out according to reports in the Mexican press (reports here suggest otherwise but this is the perception in Mexico), which will be a body blow to the northern Mexican economy. People who lose their livelihoods aren't going to be happy with the government.

 That's a lot of trouble for Mexico's government, which is already being challenged by the cartels for dominance and wanted to get this Americans-kidnapped issue over with as soon as possible. Reports state that the Mexicans did it all by themselves without the aid of the FBI, which offered help.

If the cartels targeted the victims because they are Americans, the implication is that they will target them again, trying harder the second time.

Facts are obviously still emerging from this and some may change the story, but it's indisputable that this incident created a lot of trouble for the Mexican government, and opened the path to lucrative new opportunities for ransom cash, which they will learn from and perfect. What it means is that Mexico is more dangerous than ever, both for Americans and Mexicans, because the cartels are getting very bold now, kidnapping Americans in broad daylight and trying to gaslight that it's all about being in the wrong place and the wrong time, to keep that potential victim stream, coming. They're feeling mighty powerful these days, what with all their "success" at collecting migrant fees as Joe Biden happily admits all migrant comers.

That's Joe Biden's open border in action, a horrific new risk to Americans who dare enter Mexico.

Image: Screen shot from CBS 8 San Diego video, via YouTube