Wednesday, February 16, 2011

American Official Killed in San Luis Potosí

A US Customs official was killed in San Luis Potosí at a road block presumably set up by members of organized crime, while a colleague was wounded. The two men were driving from Mexico City to Monterrey. The New York Times wrote about "the escalating risk for American officials fighting Mexican crime gangs that move drugs and migrants into the United States" in the opening sentence, which seems quite a bit premature. As the story mentions, he's the first Customs official ever to be killed in Mexico, and the most recent comparable case was Enrique Camarena a generation ago. Hopefully, and most likely, this is just a one-off incident.

Update: More here from Joshua Frens-String. Two big questions at this point are whether the shooters knew they were shooting at Americans (some American officials have been quoted as saying, Yes, they definitely did, but without offering much supporting info); and whether we are going to make the responsible shooters' patrons (probably the Zetas or the Gulf kingpins) targets in the way that we pressured Mexico to go after the 1980s capos connected to the Camarena killing. In that regard, this quote from Janet Napolitano is open to interpretation:
Let me be clear: any act of violence against our ICE personnel…is an attack against all those who serve our nation and put their lives at risk for our safety. We remain committed in our broader support for Mexico's efforts to combat violence within its borders.

5 comments:

don quixote said...

If it was one of the DTO's that killed the ICE agent then it is a large and dangerous step up for them. Wouldn't be to awfully bright of them though.
When the Caro Quintero DTO tortured and killed Kiki Camarena it became personal with the DEA and all stops were pulled in a vicious attack on the Caro Quintero DTO.
The best, or worse example of that retribution by the DEA for Camarena was I think the kidnapping of the doctor who "allegedly" kept Camarena alive so he could be tortured some more.
The Guadalajara doctor "Humberto A. Machain" was kidnapped by the DEA and thier Mexican counterparts, held for a couple of days in various motels where Machain had the shit kicked out of him like a dog. He was unceremoniously bodily thrown accross the border to US Agents in El Paso, not looking very well, hair all messed up, dusty, bloody, and scared.
He was then transported to jail in Los Angeles where he spent the next 6 or 7 years in lockup. Machain was said to have been thrown in jail with a bunch of thugs who were allowed to not only beat the crap out of him but who sexually assaulted the good doctor on a regular basis.
After seven years he was returned to Mexico after spending all his money to fight the illegal kidnapping and extradition by the DEA
Anyone with any brains would know not to piss those guys off.
Of course most of those DTO don't show a lot of smarts except for Chapo, hmmmm, could he have set up the scenario to make it look it was the Zeta's?

pc said...

Yeah that's what makes me think it might have been an accident. I know that they said it was intentional because the plates were marked, but it's not hard to imagine a scenario where something like this would happen all of a sudden without anyone knowing what was going on. You'd also think that if there were a bunch of them and they wanted to kill the Americans, they wouldn't have left one alive.

don quixote said...

If it was an accidental attack, which is doubtful to me, being that it occured in broad daylight on a well traveled highway and the car was marked, then we would probably be witness to a scenario in which the bodies of these idiots will be found in a public place with a letter of apology strapped on thier carcasses. That would be the only way to make some kind of amends at this point but it's probably too late and the shit will hit the fan on someone in the next few weeks or sooner.
There are a lot of loose cannon's running around in Mexico nowadays in the guise of major DTO's, real knucklehead wannabe cowboys with more money than brains, so one of these posse's might be the culprits.
But no matter how you slice it some heads are going to roll soon.

pc said...

Wait was the car actually marked, or did it have diplomatic plates? The latter seems more likely, I can't imagine the car being labeled as an American service vehicle, and if it was just the plates, that makes a case of confused identity a lot more plausible.

don quixote said...

The vehicle was indeed sporting diplomatic plates, I just read on the Blomberg blog that the Zeta's are claiming the hit.
Chapo must be laughing in his jerk chicken and pig trotter dinner.