ICE agent wounded in Mexico attack in Houston hospital

By Dane Schiller And Dudley Althaus / Houston Chronicle
Published: 01:53 a.m., Wednesday, February 16, 2011

MEXICO CITY — Two U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were shot Tuesday afternoon, one fatally, in an apparent assault on a highway near the northern Mexican city of San Luis Potosi as they drove a sport utility vehicle with diplomatic license plates.

The slain agent was Brownsville native Jaime Zapata, who was on assignment from the office in Laredo, where he served on the Human Smuggling and Trafficking Unit as well as the Border Enforcement Security Task Force.

The wounded ICE agent was taken to Ben Taub Hospital, in Houston, said U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, a member of the House Homeland Security Committee and chairman of the panel on investigations. McCaul is a former federal prosecutor in Texas and former deputy attorney general of Texas.

The injured agent, who was recently deployed for duty out of the United States Embassy in Mexico City, was not identified. ICE said he was shot twice in the leg and is in stable condition in the United States.

President Barack Obama telephoned Zapata's parents today, said spokesman Nick Shapiro. Obama said their son served the United States admirably and that his country was grateful for his selfless service, said.

ICE officials issued a statement today saying that U.S. law enforcement is with Mexican authorities investigating the shooting "to ensure the perpetrators of this unconscionable crime are captured as quickly as possible. The full resources of the Department of Homeland Security are at the disposal of our Mexican partners in this investigation."

"Our thoughts and prayers are with the Zapata family for their tragic loss," ICE Director John Morton said. "May the work we continue to do as an agency be worthy of a sacrifice as great as the one made by Special Agent Zapata."

Zapata graduated from the University of Texas at Brownsville and began his federal law enforcement career with the U.S. Border Patrol in Yuma, Arizona.

The agents were traveling when forced to a stop by suspected gangsters in other vehicles. The agents apparently were identifying themselves through a window when the assailants opened fire with assault weapons.

"They were moving when they were cut off," said Alonso Pena, the recently retired deputy chief of the immigration agency, who was informed of the details of the attack. "I think we will see an unprecedented response by the United States if it turns out to be a cold blooded murder of a U.S. federal agent."

"The first response is to work with the government of Mexico to insure that those responsible are brought to justice," Pena said. "There will be no stone unturned, no effort not taken, to bring those responsible to justice."

The Mexican government said today it is dispatching special organized crime investigators to assist in a probe of the shooting.

In addition, the Mexican government condemned the attack and vowed justice in the case.

"The government of Mexico strongly condemns this serious act of violence, and expresses its solidarity with the Government of the United States and the families of the persons who were attacked," said a statement from the foreign-relations ministry. "The federal authorities, in coordination and support of the state authorities, are making the necessary investigations to clarify the events and bring the guilty parties to justice."

Memories of 1985 case

Tuesday's attack is the first killing of a U.S. agent in the line of duty in Mexico since the 1985 torture murder of Drug Enforcement Agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena by drug traffickers in Guadalajara.

Camarena's killing, and the apparent collusion cover-up by Mexican officials in it, brought U.S.-Mexico relations to the near breaking point.

The Mexican highways below the South Texas border have become increasingly treacherous in recent months as gangsters have assaulted motorists, especially those travelling in sport utility vehicles.

It's not immediately clear what the U.S. agents were doing on the highway. But U.S. officials and contractors serve as instructors at a training facility for Mexican federal police in San Luis Potosi.

Mexican federal officers have been ambushed and killed upon leaving the facility in recent years.

The U.S. embassy has forbidden its officials from driving many Mexican highways because of insecurity. Among the off limit roads are the toll highways between the city of Monterrey and the South Texas border.

dane.schiller@chron.com; dudley.althaus@chron.com; susan.carroll@chron.com; stewart.powell@chron.com

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