Cartel letter doesn’t dull pain for Americans’ families

By HILARY POWELL, ALFREDO PEÑA and JAMES POLLARD
Associated Press

LAKE CITY, S.C. (AP) — Relatives of Americans abducted in Mexico said that a purported apology from the Mexican cartel blamed for the attack has done little to dull the pain of their loved ones being killed or wounded. In a letter obtained by The Associated Press through a Tamaulipas state law enforcement official, the Scorpions faction of the Gulf cartel apologized to the residents of Matamoros where the Americans were kidnapped, the Mexican woman who died in the cartel shootout and the four Americans and their families. The letter attributed to the cartel condemned the violence and said the gang turned over to authorities its own members who were responsible.