Thread: Fox Unpreturbed by Consulate Issue

http://www2.eluniversal.com.mx/pls/impr ... abla=miami

Fox unperturbed by consulate issue
Wire services
August 03, 2005

President Vicente Fox does not agree with and will not feel pressured by the U.S. decision to temporarily shut down its consulate in Nuevo Laredo given a wave of killings and drug-related mayhem gripping the border city, a top aide said Tuesday.

Presidential spokesman Rubén Aguilar reiterated Mexico's branding of the weeklong closing of the consulate "extreme and not corresponding to reality."

"While respecting the decision, the government of Mexico does not agree with it," Aguilar said at his daily briefing, adding that the U.S. decision does not change the stakes in the battle to restore order in Nuevo Laredo.

"The presidency does not feel pressured," he said.

More than 100 people have been killed in the city across from Laredo, Texas, since January, including 15 police officers. Authorities have blamed the violence on a fight between Mexico's two most powerful drug gangs to control smuggling routes into U.S. territory.

Police announced Tuesday they had found the bodies of two more men in Nuevo Laredo who had been savagely beaten and shot to death and left along a desolate road leading to an international bridge.

On Monday, Fabián Medina, newly appointed spokesman for Attorney General Daniel Cabeza de Vaca, also criticized the closing the U.S. consulate, saying such actions should only be taken "by countries in a situation of war or when violence is generalized or because of terrorist attacks."

U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Tony Garza last week ordered the Nuevo Laredo consulate to suspend all activities except for emergency services for American citizens for a week that began Monday.

In a statement, Garza made reference to "continued violence along the border" and an "alarming incident" late Thursday in which a group of men arriving in several vehicles fired machine guns, grenades and a rocket launcher at a home neighbors say was a safe house for drug smugglers in southern Nuevo Laredo.

People inside the residence apparently returned fire with high-powered weapons of their own, leaving a residential street resembling a war zone.

Garza said that while the consulate is closed, "we will be gauging what should be a swift and certain response from the government of Mexico, to bring this situation under control."

His announcement came three days after the ambassador requested the renewal of a State Department travel advisory warning Americans about violence in Mexico, especially along the border.

Last month, Nuevo Laredo's police chief was gunned down hours after taking office, and police opened fire on a group of federal agents sent in to restore order, forcing President Vicente Fox's government to launch a purge of local officers.

Nuevo Laredo is not the only place in Mexico that has seen extreme violence recently. During an attack on bettors in the western state of Jalisco before dawn Monday, two assailants lobbed grenades into a crowded cockfighting ring, killing four people and wounding 25 others.

Oh you know the more i read on this happening in Mexico. It so much reminds me of when i was in Columbia and Honduras. This is so much like what i saw.

Garza said that while the consulate is closed, "we will be gauging what should be a swift and certain response from the government of Mexico, to bring this situation under control."

The Mexican government has no idea what a "swift and certain response" is unless you are counting sneaking over the border.