HOUSTON — Two Americans are speaking out more than a month after they were kidnapped by a drug cartel in Mexico. Two others did not survive the attack.
The survivors spoke to CNN's Anderson Cooper about the terrifying ordeal.
"They was putting the guns to our head, telling us not to look up, things like that," survivor Eric Williams said.
Cooper asked if the cartel provided any medical treatment for their injuries.
"The cartel took us to a clinic after we left from the spot where they was questioning us at," Williams said.
"I guess after they kept asking us and our answers never changed, they said, 'Well, we're gonna get y'all some help," fellow survivor LaTavia Washington McGee said.
"They put my leg on a 2x4 and then they stitched it up," Williams said.
The two said they were under guard by people with guns during the whole ordeal. Washington McGee said one of their captors actually showed them video of the kidnapping taking place on his phone.
"I just started crying," she said. "It's, like, I'm never going home."
Washington McGee said knowing the video was out in the public made her feel a little better about the situation, but didn't know how far the video had reached.
"I just didn't know our families knew anything that happened to us," she said.
The two said it felt like the cartel was always a step ahead of law enforcement.
"It felt like we were never going to be found," Washington McGee said. "They had police scanners and all types of stuff in their trucks."
The two described an encounter with one person in the cartel pushing for their release.
"He was like, 'There's nothing we can do to bring your two brothers back, but we're sorry. Somebody made the wrong call, they was high, drunk. And I'm from America, too,'" Washington McGee said. "He said, 'I'm fighting with my boss for him to give y'all up.' He's like, 'I don't know how I'm going to do this but we're going to try to get y'all back home, see y'all family.'"
"He's, like, 'When I give y'all up I'm going to leave, too, because they're going to kill me for letting y'all go.'"
She said a few days later they were blindfolded and were driven around until around 3 a.m. when they were dropped off in the shack they were eventually found in.