State Department Official Admits Murder of Federal Employee in Mexico Treated Differently than Other U.S. Victims

Tuesday, March 16, 2010
By Penny Starr, Senior Staff Writer


P.J. Crowley, assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Public Affairs, said the federal government routinely names its employees who die abroad, but not private citizens. (CNSNews.com/Penny Starr)


(CNSNews.com) – A State Department official said the names, ages and other details about the two U.S. citizens gunned down in Mexico last weekend were made public because Lesley Enriquez worked for the U.S. government and her husband Arthur Redelfs was a U.S. citizen and detention officer who worked in El Paso, Texas.

Mexican officials have speculated that the couple was shot and killed by violent drug gangs on Saturday while driving along a street in Juarez. A third person, a Mexican man, also was shot and killed as he left the same birthday party that Enriquez and Redelfs had attended with their baby.

At a press briefing on Monday, CNSNews.com asked State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley why the Obama administration was forthcoming with details about Enriquez and Redelfs when the department’s own database that tracks the deaths of U.S. citizens abroad from non-natural causes provides only the date, location and cause of death, citing privacy concerns.

CNSNews.com: With this tragedy of these U.S. citizens being killed in Mexico, the administration has been forthcoming with their names, ages, the circumstances of the tragedy – the killings – and yet according to the State Department ,there are dozens and dozens of U.S. citizens who are victims of homicide in Mexico. They’re documented every year in the annual Death of U.S. Citizens Abroad by Non-natural Causes.

Just, in fact, from January through the end of June – the first six months of 2009 -- there were 30 U.S. citizens who were victims of homicide in Mexico. And I want to know – their names are not provided, only the location of their death and the cause of death, which is listed as homicide – I’m referring to those 30 that died in the first six months of 2009 right now.

What’s the difference, with, between the two U.S. citizens this past weekend in Mexico and the countless Americans that have died in Mexico; we don’t know what their names are, what their ages are, you know, what the circumstances of their deaths were. What is the administration doing to see that justice is served for those U.S. citizens who were victims of homicide in Mexico?

Crowley: To your very specific point, obviously these were, these were employees of the United States government, and that’s why we announced their particular identities.

CNSNews.com: Is there a difference, then, between someone who works for the government and regular citizens?

Crowley: You’re talking about the difference between a U.S. government employee and the difference between a private citizen and, and it’s up, you know, to the families to announce what details they want to announce on their particular identities. I mean we, as we do in any country in the world, we take safety and security of U.S. citizens extraordinarily seriously.

We go to great lengths to try to do everything we can work with those nations’ governments to make sure they can live or visit these countries safely. That’s why we announce travel warnings to U.S. citizens to provide them with full information as they decide where to travel either in this hemisphere or around the world.

We announced one American who was killed during the earthquake in Haiti. She happened to be a U.S. Foreign Service officer. There were many American citizens who died in Haiti, but the announcement of their deaths we felt was a private matter unless those families ….

CNSNews.com: O.K., beyond their name, though, let’s get to the part of, you know, seeing that justice is served. These two employees of the United States government, you know it’s valid that they are going to serve justice for them, but what about the other U.S. citizens who have died in Mexico? What is the status of their cases, and has justice been served? We don’t even know who they are.

Crowley: Which is expressly the reason why we have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in Mexico to help provide the resources so that working with the Mexican government we can make sure that to the extent there is violence, whether it affects U.S. citizens in Mexico or Mexican citizens, that these killings are investigated, that a culture of corruption and impunity that has been evident in certain places in the past, that is reversed. So this is a shared struggle, a shared responsibility.

We are working extremely closely with our Mexican neighbors on this issue, but in, throughout Mexico we have consular officials, security officials who are constantly looking at, evaluating the … security of Mexico and the implications on U.S. citizens.

CNSNews.com: So there’s no difference on how they’re going to move on a case -- having the FBI involved – if you are government employee or just a regular U.S. citizen?

Crowley: We work with our Mexican counterparts to investigate ongoing violence, including violence against U.S. citizens.

Crowley confirmed at Monday's briefing that the Federal Bureau of Investigation is working with Mexican officials on last weekend’s murders.

According to the State Department, dozens of U.S. citizens are murdered in Mexico each year, and many of them may be caught up in violence associated with Mexican drug cartels. From Jan. 1, 2009 to June 27, 2009, 30 U.S. citizens are listed as homicide victims in the State Department’s "Deaths of U.S. Citizens Abroad by Non-natural Causes" database.

CNSNews.com filed a request through the Freedom of Information Act in July 2008 to obtain the names and other vital information about U.S. citizen homicide victims who have died in Mexico in recent years. To date, that request has not been answered.

On Sunday, following the killing spree in Mexico, the State Department updated its Web site travel warning for Mexico, announcing the authorized departure of dependents of U.S. personnel in six Mexican cities along its northern border with the United States.

It also warned against “unnecessary travelâ€