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FBI joins hunt for killers of US consular staff in Mexico
[Iran Press TV Latest] Following the violent killing of three individuals linked to a US Consulate in Mexico over the weekend, the US Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) joins the Mexican police in the hunt for the perpetrators. Sitting on the border across the US city of El Paso, the City of Ciudad Juarez, were the murders took place, has been wrecked by a rising wave of violence, mostly associated with Mexico's drugs cartels, embroiled in bloody turf wars among themselves while simultaneously fighting the country's law enforcement bodies. According to the Ciudad Juarez police department, there were 2,650 murders in the city of some 1.5 million inhabitants in 2009. Most remain unsolved. The city has the dubious distinctions of having Mexico's highest murder rate and being judged the most dangerous place on earth outside a war-zone. Two of the murdered Americans were gunned down while travelling in their car apparently on their way back from a children's birthday party. Their baby, who was travelling in the back seat of same vehicle, was unharmed in the attack. The third victim was a Mexican citizen who worked for the US consulate. While the US authorities were keeping an open mind on the motives of the attacks, an analyst with a Texas-based intelligence analysis firm Stratfor suggests that the murders may have been related to recent plans for closer cooperation between US and Mexican law enforcement agencies. "We believe that it is likely related to a decision last month to start working more closely with the Mexican government by the Americans," said Stratfor's VP Scott Stewart, quoted by the Wall Street Journal on March 16. "They were going to put some personnel into a joint fusion center in Juarez." The US State Department has urged its diplomatic staff in Mexican border cities to send home their families until further notice, in view of the surge in violence. Meanwhile Mexico's President Felipe Calderon visited the troubled city today to boost the economic and social regeneration programs he had announced last month in order to fight the spiraling crime rate. Posted by: Fred 2010-03-17 |
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