Outrage: Americans assassinated in Mexico!
Posted on Sunday, March 14 @ 19:47:54 EDT
Topic: Mexican Mexico Border illegal immigratio
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 3 people associated with U.S. consulate killed in Mexico
March 14, 2010 1:31 p.m. EDT
(CNN) -- Three people connected to the U.S. consulate in Ciudad Juarez,
Mexico, were killed in a drive-by shooting in the violent border city,
a senior White House official told CNN Sunday.
One of the victims was an American employee at the consulate. Her
husband and the husband of a Mexican employee of the consulate were
also killed. The shooting happened Saturday afternoon, the official
said.
Details of the killings were not immediately available, but the news had reached the White House.
"The President is deeply saddened and outraged
by the news of the brutal murders of three people associated with the
United States Consulate General in Ciudad Juarez," National Security
Council spokesman Mike Hammer said in a statement Sunday. "He extends
his condolences to the families and condemns these attacks on consular
and diplomatic personnel serving at our foreign missions. In concert
with Mexican authorities, we will work tirelessly to bring their
killers to justice."
In response, the U.S. State Department authorized the temporary
relocation of employees' families working in border-area consulates.
The families of employees at U.S. consulates in Tijuana, Nogales,
Ciudad Juarez, Nuevo Laredo, Monterrey and Matamoros are allowed to
leave for a period of 30 days "in response to an increase in violence
along the Mexican side of its border with the U.S.," State Department
spokesman Fred Lash told CNN.
After 30 days, the authorization can be renewed, depending on a
review, Lash said, adding that this was not a mandatory evacuation.
Ciudad Juarez is one of the frontlines in Mexico's war against the drug cartels that operate in its territory.
Juarez, located on the border across from El Paso, Texas, has
become a focal point of Mexican President Felipe Calderon's anti-drug
efforts after the January 31 killings of 15 people there, most of whom
were students with no ties to organized crime. The incident sparked
outrage across Mexico.
The government has not released official figures, but national
media say 7,600 Mexicans lost their lives in the war on drugs in 2009.
Calderon said last year that 6,500 Mexicans died in drug violence in
2008.
Meanwhile, farther south in Mexico, at least 25 people were killed
in a series of violent incidents in the western Mexican state of
Guerrero on Saturday, state officials said.
The bodies of 14 people, including nine civilians and five police
officers, were found in various parts of the resort city of Acapulco,
the official Notimex news agency reported, citing Guerrero Public
Security Secretary Juan Heriberto Salinas.
In the small city of Ajuchitlan del Progreso, 10 civilians and one
soldier were killed in two shootouts that started when federal
officials tried to carry out search warrants on two locations, Salinas
said.
Police in the state were on a heightened security alert, he said.
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U.S. official, husband killed in Ciudad Juarez
President 'outraged;' families of consulate staff along border urged to leave
Interactive: Mexican drug cartels
Learn more about how Mexican drug cartels are extending their reach farther into the U.S.
msnbc.com staff and news service reports
updated 50 minutes ago
Two Americans, a U.S. consulate employee and her husband, were killed
in a drive-by shooting in Ciudad Juarez, the Mexican border city
wracked by drug violence, the White House said Sunday.
President Barack Obama "is deeply saddened and outraged by the news
of the brutal murders," National Security Council spokesman Mike Hammer
said in a statement.
A third person, the husband of a U.S. consulate employee, was also killed in the shooting Saturday night.
The White House did not indicate what steps it might take, but
Hammer said the administration would "continue to work with Mexican
President Felipe Calderon and his government to break the power of the
drug trafficking organizations that operate in Mexico and far too often
target and kill the innocent. "
Simultaneously, the State Department authorized all U.S. government
employees at six U.S. consulates in northern Mexico to send their
family members out of the area because of concerns about rising
drug-related violence, including the post in Ciudad Juarez.
And travelers were warned against visiting northern areas of
Mexico. "Recent violent attacks have prompted the U.S. Embassy to urge
U.S. citizens to delay unnecessary travel to parts of Durango, Coahuila
and Chihuahua states and advise U.S. citizens residing or traveling in
those areas to exercise extreme caution," the State Department said in
a bulletin. "Drug cartels and associated criminal elements have
retaliated violently against individuals who speak out against them or
whom they otherwise view as a threat to their organizations."
Calderon has deployed tens of thousands of troops to drug-trafficking
hotspots across Mexico in an effort to root out cartels. Gang violence
has surged since the crackdown began three years ago, claiming more
than 17,900 lives.
24 killed in, around Acapulco
Also Saturday, 13 people were killed in and around the Mexican beach
resort of Acapulco, with four victims found beheaded, security
officials said. Another gunbattle in the state left 11 people dead.
Five of those killed were police officers whose night-time patrol
was ambushed by gunmen early Saturday in Tuncingo, a rural area on the
outskirts of the Pacific coast resort city.
The bullet-riddled bodies of eight other men were discovered in
different areas around Acapulco in apparent drug-related killings,
officials said. Two of the decapitated men were found on a scenic road
packed with nightclubs.
The violence occurred as thousands of U.S. college students started arriving in the area for spring break.
Any resurgence in violence would be bad news for the country's tourism
industry. Last June, at least 18 people were killed in a shootout
between drug gangs and soldiers in Acapulco, which is home to around a
million people.
Shootout with soldiers
More violence apparently linked to drugs flared later Saturday in
Guerrero state, where Acapulco is located, with Mexican soldiers
exchanging fire with gunmen, the newspaper Reforma reported. One
soldier and 10 gunmen were killed in the shootout in the town of
Ajuchitlan del Progreso, the newspaper said.
Valentin Diaz, director of the Guerrero state investigative police,
said the gunfight erupted in the middle of the day in the center of the
town as it was full of bystanders.
Several cartels are fighting over drug-dealing turf and trafficking
routes in Guerrero. Gang violence occurs almost every day in the state,
but Saturday was unusually bloody.
Farther to the south in the state of Chiapas, which borders Guatemala,
a grenade explosion inside a car killed one man and wounded another.
State prosecutors said the dead man was holding the weapon when it
exploded.
Investigators believe the victim belonged to the Zetas drug gang
and had been about to throw the grenade at federal police offices in
the state capital, Tuxtla Gutierrez.
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