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发帖数: 2053 | 1 https://www.yahoo.com/news/gunman-shoots-wounds-us-consular-official-mexico-
162604793.html
MARK STEVENSON,Associated Press 1 hour 3 minutes ago
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican prosecutors said Saturday they are searching for
a gunman who opened fire on an official of the U.S. consulate in the
western city of Guadalajara.
The Attorney General's Office said the official was wounded in the attack
Friday in Guadalajara. The city is the capital of Jalisco state, which is
dominated by the hyper-violent Jalisco New Generation cartel. There was no
immediate evidence of any cartel link to the attack.
The shooting appeared to be a direct attempt to kill the consular employee.
Surveillance video of the attack shows the gunman following the official in
a parking garage. The official, whose name was not released, was dressed in
shorts. The attacker doesn't appear to try to approach the official while he
is walking, but instead waits for him to exit the parking garage in his
vehicle and fires a round into the car's windshield.
The consulate said on its Facebook page that the FBI is offering a $20,000
reward for information on the attacker.
Guadalajara is Mexico's second largest city and is not specifically singled
out for any special precautions in the latest U.S. travel warning updated on
Dec. 8.
The U.S. Embassy in Mexico City said that for privacy reasons no further
information would be made available on the victim, including his condition.
"The safety and security of our employees overseas is among our highest
priorities," said an embassy spokeswoman who was not authorized to be quoted
by name. "We are working closely with Mexican law enforcement ?in this
matter."
The Attorney General's Office said the victim was in "stable" condition and
under protection, apparently at a local hospital. The office said the case
was being handled by federal detectives. An attack on diplomatic personnel
would be considered a federal crime in Mexico.
U.S. consular employees and other U.S. agents have been attacked in Mexico
in the past; the attackers have usually argued the attacks were cases of
mistaken identity.
In 2014, a Mexican gang leader was sentenced to life in prison for his role
in the 2010 slayings in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, of a U.S.
consulate employee, her husband and the husband of another employee.
Prosecutors said Arturo Gallegos Castrellon was in charge of a team of
assassins with the Barrio Azteca, a gang allied with the Juarez drug cartel,
and had ordered the three slayings.
The killings of U.S. consulate employee Leslie Ann Enriquez Catton, her
husband, Arthur Redfels, and Alberto Salcido Ceniceros, the husband of
another consulate employee, as they left a children's birthday party were a
mistake, former gang members testified during the trial.
Redfels was driving a white SUV that was very similar to a vehicle that
Gallegos Castrellon had marked as a target for his team of assassins because
they thought it belonged to members of the rival Sinaloa cartel.
In 2012, uniformed police pumped 152 bullets into a U.S. Embassy vehicle
carrying two CIA officers and a Mexican Navy captain. The police officers,
who wounded the Americans and face attempted murder charges, initially said
the people they attacked were in uniform and marked cars, and that they had
responded to fire from the SUV. But details of the attorney general's
investigation said those attacked were in street clothes, riding in unmarked
vehicles (including two of their personal cars) and under order at all
times from their commanding officers.
A Mexican drug cartel lieutenant pleaded guilty in 2013 to murder and
attempted murder of an officer or employee of the United States in the Feb.
15, 2011, shootings of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
The attackers acknowledged they were members of a Los Zetas Cartel hit squad
and directly participated in the attack, which resulted in the death of ICE
agent Jaime Zapata and the wounding of his colleague Victor Avila, both
based in Texas.
According to court documents, a commander in Los Zetas Cartel tried to
hijack the agents' armored government vehicle as it was driving on Highway
57 in San Luis Potosi. After hit squads forced the vehicle off the road and
surrounded it, the Zetas commander ordered the U.S. agents to get out. The
agents refused and tried to identify themselves in Spanish as diplomats from
the American embassy, but the hit squad members fired into the vehicle,
striking both of them. |
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