More Violence Erupts in Mexico Killing U.S. Consulate Employee

The United States government says it is outraged by the killing of three people associated with the U.S. consulate in the drug-plagued Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez.

Officials say a U.S. consulate employee and her husband, both U.S. citizens, were killed Saturday in a drive-by shooting. The couple’s baby, who was also in their vehicle, was not injured.

Suspected drug gangsters chased down and opened fire on two white SUVs carrying families of U.S. consular employees from a children’s party, killing three adults and and injuring two children in this violent border city, officials said Monday.

In a separate shooting, gunmen killed the husband of a Mexican citizen employed by the consulate.

More than 14,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence in Mexico in recent years, despite the deployment of nearly 50,000 troops to fight the drug cartels.

President Calderon ordered the security forces to fight drug violence and trafficking after his election in 2006.

Officials say they do not know the motive for the recent killings.  The FBI announced it was aiding Mexico’s federal Attorney General’s Office in probing the slayings that alarmed both the White House and Mexico’s presidency as the surging bloodshed along Mexico’s border struck the families of U.S. government employees.

Mexican authorities put suspicion on the Aztecas street gang – a group allied with the “La Linea” enforcement arm of the Juarez drug cartel. They said that was based on “information exchanged with U.S. federal agencies.”

Ciudad Juarez, which lies near El Paso, Texas, has been on the front line of Mexican President Felipe Calderon’s war on drug cartels.

The U.S. consulate in Ciudad Juárez, shut for Monday’s Mexican national holiday, also will be closed on Tuesday as “a way for the community to mourn the loss” of the victims, said consulate spokesman Silvio Gonzalez.

It was the second U.S. border consulate closed because of violence in the last month. The consular office in Reynosa, across from McAllen, Texas closed for several days in late February because of gun battles in the area.

Several U.S. citizens have been killed in Mexico’s drug war, most of them people with family ties to Mexico. It is very rare for American government employees to be targeted, although attackers hurled grenades at the U.S. consulate in the northern city of Monterrey in 2008.

The atmosphere of violence in Juárez had been creeping closer to U.S. offices for some time: on Friday, the consulate put a bar just around the block from its office off limits to U.S. government personnel “due to security concerns.”

In related news, the State Department has authorized diplomats working at U.S. consulates in northern Mexico to send family members out of the area because of security concerns.

Secretary Clinton released a statement Sunday in response to the killing of a consular employee in Ciudad Juarez, along with the husbands of two other employees.

“I offer my deepest sympathies to the family, loved ones and colleagues of these victims,” Clinton said. “These appalling assaults on members of our own State Department family are, sadly, part of a growing tragedy besetting many communities in Mexico.”

National Security Council spokesman Mike Hammer issued a statement offering the president’s response:

“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 Juárez, Mexico, including a U.S. citizen employee, her U.S. citizen husband, and the husband of a Mexican citizen employee. 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.

“The President shares in the outrage of the Mexican people at the murders of thousands in Ciudad Juárez and elsewhere in Mexico. We will continue to work with Mexican President Felipe Calderón 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. 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.”

Meanwhile, in western Mexico, at least 24 people were killed Saturday in drug-related violence.

Mexico’s northern border areas have been particularly violent as drug cartels battle each other for control of trafficking routes into the United States.

As spring break trips get underway from U.S. colleges, the State Department warns Americans about the dangers of drug-related violence in Mexico and recommends that travel be delayed to some areas where drug cartels are particularly active.

The Americano / Agencies

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