Thread: 3 people associated with U.S. consulate killed in Mexico

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.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/ ... gletoolbar

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.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35861483/ns ... -americas/

The MSM sure jumped right on this one.

Initial posts on this topic:
http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-191111.html

Why oh why would ANYONE want to vacation down there. Ugh...that place is hell on earth.

Updated March 14, 2010

U.S. Condemns Mexico Drug Violence That Kills Three Tied to U.S. Consulate

FOXNews.com

The White House issued a statement Sunday pledging support for Mexico's government to break drug trafficking in the country after recent violence took the lives of three people associated with the U.S. consulate in Ciudad Jaurez.

The White House issued a statement Sunday pledging support for Mexico's government to break drug trafficking in the country after recent violence took the lives of three people associated with the U.S. consulate in Ciudad Jaurez.

The three individuals, not named by the National Security Council, were a U.S. citizen employee, her U.S. citizen husband, and the husband of a Mexican citizen employee, according to NSC spokesman Mike Hammer.

"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, Mexico," Hammer said in a statement.

"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."

Meanwhile, the State Department told U.S. government employees at six U.S. consulates in northern Mexico to send their family members out of the area. The six consulates are in the border cities of Tijuana, Nogales, Ciudad Juarez, Nuevo Laredo, Monterrey and Matamoros.

The department said in a statement Sunday that recent violent attacks have led the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City to advise American citizens to delay unnecessary travel to parts of the Mexican states of Durango, Coahuila and Chihuahua.

"The situation in the state of Chihuahua, specifically Ciudad Juarez, is of special concern," reads the State Department's travel advisory. "U.S. citizens should pay close attention to their surroundings while traveling in Ciudad Juarez, avoid isolated locations during late night and early morning hours, and remain alert to news reports."

Drug-related violence has killed almost 18,000 people throughout Mexico since President Felipe Calderon launched an offensive against drug traffickers in December 2006. Most of the killings have been among rival smugglers, according to the federal government. The State Department noted that more than 2,600 people were killed in Ciudad Juarez in 2009. The city of 1.3 million people also had more than 16,000 car thefts and 1,900 carjackings last year.

The U.S. consulate in Ciudad Juarez, which lies across the border of El Paso, Texas, was closed last week after a bomb threat.

"This is a responsibility we must shoulder together, particularly in border communities where strong bonds of history, culture, and common interest bind the Mexican and the American people closely together," Hammer said.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/03 ... latestnews

Hopefully this will get everyone's attention.

Heads up homepage team!

When something major like this happens, we need to take it to the homepage asap.

Moving it there now.

W

added to homepage

Outrage: Americans assassinated in Mexico!

http://www.alipac.us/article5015.html

Three Americans killed in Juárez shooting

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico — Three people with ties to the American consulate were killed in a drug-plagued Mexican city, including a U.S. couple shot to death within sight of the border with their baby in their back seat, officials said Sunday.

Several U.S. citizens have been killed in Mexico's drug war, most of them people with family ties to Mexico. However, it is rare for American government employees to be targeted.

The three died during a particularly bloody weekend in Mexico, with nearly 50 people killed in apparent drug-gang violence. Nine people were killed in a gang shootout early Sunday in the Pacific resort city of Acapulco, one of Mexico's spring break attractions.

The U.S. consulate employee and her husband were shot to death Saturday in their car near the Santa Fe International bridge linking Ciudad Juarez with El Paso, Texas, said Vladimir Tuexi, a spokesman for Chihuahua state prosecutors' office.

Their baby was found unharmed in the back seat. Tuexi estimated the child was about 1 year old.

Killed were consular employee Lesley A. Enriquez, 35, and her husband, Arthur H. Redelfs, 34, according to Robert Cason, Redelfs' stepfather.

Redelfs was a detention officer with the El Paso County Jail, Cason said.


http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/2_Amer ... uarez.html