Patterico's Pontifications

3/14/2010

U.S. Consulate Employee Shot in Juarez (Updated x2)

Filed under: International — DRJ @ 5:30 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

A Mexican citizen and two Americans — identified as U.S. Consular employee Lesley A. Enriquez and her husband, Arthur H. Redelfs, of El Paso — were killed in two shooting incidents in Juarez:

“Witnesses told police a group of armed men in a vehicle began pursuing and then shot at the U.S. couple who were in a Toyota vehicle.

The couple in the Toyota drove from 5 de Mayo and Malecon, where the pursuit began, to near the Juárez city hall building, probably in an attempt to reach the U.S. side of the border. The city hall building is between the Paso del Norte and Stanton Street international bridges.

However, after sustaining several gunshots, they drove onto oncoming traffic on Francisco Villa, and crashed into other vehicles. The man and wife were pronounced dead at the scene.

Police who rushed to the scene said they discovered a baby in the backseat of the Toyota; the baby was uninjured.

In the second attack, at almost the same time Saturday, police reported the shooting death of a man who is married to woman who works at the U.S. consulate in Juárez. He was shot at while driving on Avenida Insurgentes in the Segunda Burocrata neighborhood.”

The White House extended “condolences to the families and condemns these attacks on consular and diplomatic personnel serving at our foreign missions.”

Northern Mexico is lawless and, almost every day, the side effects are spilling across the border into Texas and other border states.

MORE: The Houston Chronicle reports Redelfs was a detention officer with the El Paso County Jail and their child was about 1 year old. It adds that over 50 people were killed in Mexico this weekend alone, including 2 beheadings in Acapulco.

— DRJ

UPDATE — This is depressing. Politico’s post on this story shows the Politico editors don’t even know where Juarez is and don’t understand the content at the AP article they linked:

“National Security Council Spokeman Mike Hammer issued a statement Saturday morning saying “the president is deeply saddened and outraged” by the murder of two American citizens and the husband of a Mexican citizen associated with the U.S. consular office in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico.

A senior administration official says that the incident occurred on Friday afternoon, when the victims were killed in drive-by shootings.

The consular office in Ciudad Juárez, just across the border from McAllen, Tx., was temporarily closed last month after a series of battles between different drug gangs, and between drug gangs and Mexican police and soldiers.”

The linked AP article is datelined Ciudad Juarez but concerns Reynosa:

“CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico — The United States has temporarily closed its consular office in the Mexican border city of Reynosa, across from McAllen, Texas, after gunbattles with drug gangs rocked the area this week.”

The announcement was probably issued from the Juarez Consulate because the Reynosa Consulate was closed. Juarez is across from El Paso in far West Texas. Reynosa is approximately 790 miles south of Juarez across from McAllen in South Texas.

UPDATE 2: The AP reports the U.S. government has authorized family leave and pay for employees of several Northern Mexico consulates.

In addition, the shootings targeted Consular employees or their families as they left a birthday party for a co-worker’s child. Both were driving white vehicles. Enriquez was shot in the head and her husband in the neck and arm. their daughter was not hurt and is in the custody of Mexican authorities. Enriquez was pregnant.

The other vehicle contained the husband of a Consular worker and their two children. The man was killed and the children, ages 4 and 7, were injured. The husband may have been a former policeman, raising suspicions that he was the target.

58 Responses to “U.S. Consulate Employee Shot in Juarez (Updated x2)”

  1. The silence from Washington will, of course, be deafening. The political establishment in this country doesn’t give a damn about what happens on the U.S.-Mexico border, as seen with their consistent dithering on the border enforcement/amnesty issue.

    Mike LaRoche (349322)

  2. We need to put our troops on the border NOW. This is a national security issue.

    Unfortunately, I don’t expect anyone to do anything about it, especially not this administration.

    wherestherum (d413fd)

  3. The people who sell and/or use drugs in this country and those who promote that usage (e.g., entertainment media) need to understand – with assistance, if necessary – the fundamental evil that THEY ARE A PART OF. IT AIN’T VICTIMLESS CRIME… IT’S EVIL.

    GeneralMalaise (d63092)

  4. Mexico will descend ( back … ) into a chaotic, third world failed state and civil war sometime soon. Whether its a couple of years or a decade. When it reaches that point, the warfare will not stay on “their” side of the border, it didn’t in the past

    Do you want Obama in charge of our national security when that happens? I don’t.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  5. Good point – Pancho Villa made numerous raids and murders across the border until the Rangers took control.

    Dmac (ca1d8c)

  6. I’ve updated the post with a Politico link. I hope the White House knows more about Mexico and Texas than Politico does.

    DRJ (daa62a)

  7. Don’t bet on it, DRJ.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  8. Sam Houston wept.

    Ag80 (f67beb)

  9. Layers of editors to check the facts. Right.

    Alta Bob (e8af2b)

  10. To the guys at Politico, it’s all “fly-over country.”

    But Juarez/El Paso is in fact closer to Tijuana/San Diego than to Reynosa/McAllen. Hence the frontier traveler’s refrain:

    “The sun has riz,
    the sun has set.
    And here we is,
    In Texas yet.”

    Those guys from Politico obviously need to do a Texas road trip for their spring break. It might afford them some much-needed literal perspective that could, in turn, lead them to some much-needed figurative perspective.

    Beldar (617787)

  11. Juarez is just a sleepy village of 1.5 million people. It’s hard to keep up with those border towns.

    Ag80 (f67beb)

  12. …“the president is deeply saddened and outraged” by the murder of two American citizens and…

    A smart guess would be that he’s not outraged enough to be willing to do something noteworthy in response.

    Blacque Jacques Shellacque (5ef35b)

  13. “the president is deeply saddened and outraged”

    mostly because it might impact his personal supply chain…

    let’s be honest: Ear Leader will likely be right out of the gate using this to call for new legislation that restricts or eliminates completely the rights of law abiding American citizens as a means of allegedly increasing the safety and stability of a country that has never demonstrated either as long as it has existed.

    redc1c4 (fb8750)

  14. Mayhem and misery can easily flourish when the fundamentals of a society aren’t too good to begin with. The one thing that causes me the most concern about Mexico and, in turn, the United States are statistics that indicate high percentages of people south of the border and of Mexican descent in the United States are laggards when it comes to scholastic achievement—indefinitely and persistently. From that starting point, other facets of a society can easily creak and, worse of all, even crumble.

    Variations of Juarez, Mexico — perhaps less severe, maybe even as severe — may be a window into the US’s future.

    Mark (411533)

  15. Time to invade Mexico, clean it up, and make it a number of US protectorates.

    PCD (7bf19f)

  16. Sunday’s OCRegister carried an article about the outbreak of war in the Rio Grande Valley between the Gulf Cartel and the Zeta’s, and that it is causing mayhem from Brownsville to Laredo.

    Juarez has been in a state of war for several years now.

    The only way to keep this out of El Norte would be a complete embargo along the border, from Brownsville to Tijuana; and even then, it might be too little and too late.

    I doubt that we’ll get serious about this even if the cartels start to battle in the streets of Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

    AD - RtR/OS! (4b3875)

  17. I doubt that we’ll get serious about this even if the cartels start to battle in the streets of Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

    I believe the cartels are already active on the streets of Phoenix, but not necessarily battling each other. Just going after skimming mules.

    John Hitchcock (b7ef1f)

  18. I have a feeling we are heading towards military intervention very soon in Mexico

    EricPWJohnson (44bba4)

  19. 10, Beldar, the liberals at Politico do not have passports and visas to leave the Liberal areas of either coast. That, and they’d probably get shot for taking, errr…..sharing, things that don’t belong to them.

    PCD (1d8b6d)

  20. It’s unfortunate that now that Mexico finally has a leader willing to take on the drug cartels, they’ve become far too powerful and incestuous with the law enforcement agencies at this point. Fox really should be ashamed of himself, if he had any shame to begin with.

    Dmac (ca1d8c)

  21. This is more U.S. violence spilling over into Mexico, not the other way around. That the spouse of a Texas prison worker was killed may be incidental to something involving the seemingly endless appetite for narcotics and your inability to control your firearms trade.

    Richard Grabman (ec0428)

  22. Thanks for stopping by – please tell us, which mouthpiece do you represent, the Sinaloa or the Gulf cartel?

    Dmac (ca1d8c)

  23. Ricardo muy bastardo.

    Dmac (ca1d8c)

  24. Richard seems to run an English language Mexican blog. Maybe he is a little sheepish about the civil war south of the border. I used to go to Mexico a few times a year. I wonder what has happened to their tourist trade ? I wouldn’t know from any personal experience.

    Mike K (2cf494)

  25. Dmac

    Therein lies the rub – Mexico “claims” that Texas is funneling thousands upon thousands of guns and millions of rounds of ammunition to Mexico

    Whether this is true or not I totally agree is up for debate

    There is some evidence that this maybe totally true. (People in a high school in my old neighborhood Klein Forrest were/are being charged with serious gun running)

    Also, the drug use recreationally in the USA does have an effect upon the levels of violence in Mexico.

    To say this is a problem not created by the United States – would have some serious arguments against it.

    EricPWJohnson (44bba4)

  26. Grabman, flogging that Obama administration falsehood about the source of guns in Mexico, I see.

    SPQR (159590)

  27. It’s good to see Politico rising to the quality of mainstream media, who also don’t fact-check or proofread.

    tehag (2b45b4)

  28. The amount and numbers of gun-running from the US into Mexico is just disgusting. Why, just the other day, at my local gunshop, the shelves were empty of Korean-made rifle-grenades that are being sold to the cartels. And, the back-orders on German-made assault-rifles (G-3’s) is endless – not to talk about the FN-made M-16’s that have become impossible to find/sarc.

    AD - RtR/OS! (913281)

  29. Comment by SPQR — 3/15/2010 @ 8:38 am

    If they couldn’t lie about the Hell that they have created all by themselves in their country, they would have nothing to say.

    “Poor Mexico – so far from God, so close to the United States”

    AD - RtR/OS! (913281)

  30. I see my “fans” don’t have the balls to sign with their real names. Nothing to hide, business (and I’m loosely in the tourism biz, writing occasionally for guidebooks, and mostly on Mexican culture and history, as well as working for an English-language small publisher… in Sinaloa, where foreigners have not had any problems to speak of.

    Look… it’s U.S. drug use (the Mexican narcotics user rate is about one-half of one percent of the entire population… and that includes weekend marijuana smokers) and U.S. guns and money that keep this “war” going. And, the violence only escalated with the election (if it was valid) of Felipe Calderón. The sense among large sectors of Mexican political opinion is that the “war on drugs” is a way to legitimize Calderón’s administration, and the “drug war” is unwinnable and unnecessary, being a result of U.S. consumer demand.

    As to our growers, if the U.S. had a fair trade agricultural policy, and wasn’t giving corporate tax advantages to multinationals like Monsanto and Cargill, maybe Mexican farmers wouldn’t be growing marijuana and poppies. But, they aren’t and the U.S. isn’t doing jack about its drug habits or its money laundering (that cash sure isn’t coming back here, or rural Sinaloa would be wealthy).

    As it is, the murders in Juarez are supposedly the work of Los Aztecas, a U.S. gang. However, it is being spun to still more intervention in Mexican affairs, and to justify more “Merida Initiative” spending, which doesn’t benefit Mexico, but is propping up U.S. suppliers of equipment and services.

    Richard Grabman (ec0428)

  31. I see my “fans” don’t have the balls to sign with their real names. Nothing to hide, business (and I’m loosely in the tourism biz, writing occasionally for guidebooks, and mostly on Mexican culture and history, as well as working for an English-language small publisher… in Sinaloa, where foreigners have not had any problems to speak of) hasn’t been much affected by this, though I suspect there will be some drop in U.S. tourism. Hard to say, since U.S. tourism is already down because of the economic situation.

    Look… it’s U.S. drug use (the Mexican narcotics user rate is about one-half of one percent of the entire population… and that includes weekend marijuana smokers) and U.S. guns and money that keep this “war” going. And, the violence only escalated with the election (if it was valid) of Felipe Calderón. The sense among large sectors of Mexican political opinion is that the “war on drugs” is a way to legitimize Calderón’s administration, and the “drug war” is unwinnable and unnecessary, being a result of U.S. consumer demand.

    As to our growers, if the U.S. had a fair trade agricultural policy, and wasn’t giving corporate tax advantages to multinationals like Monsanto and Cargill, maybe Mexican farmers wouldn’t be growing marijuana and poppies. But, they aren’t and the U.S. isn’t doing jack about its drug habits or its money laundering (that cash sure isn’t coming back here, or rural Sinaloa would be wealthy).

    As it is, the murders in Juarez are supposedly the work of Los Aztecas, a U.S. gang. However, it is being spun to still more intervention in Mexican affairs, and to justify more “Merida Initiative” spending, which doesn’t benefit Mexico, but is propping up U.S. suppliers of equipment and services.

    Richard Grabman (ec0428)

  32. I see my “fans” don’t have the balls to sign with their real names.

    So now we hear again from the legendary cojones braggart. OK, amigo, just e – mail the proprietor a request for my e- mail address, and you can discuss this at greater length with me all you want. Sound good? If not, then STFU about your big tough guy act.

    Look… it’s U.S. drug use (the Mexican narcotics user rate is about one-half of one percent of the entire population… and that includes weekend marijuana smokers) and U.S. guns and money that keep this “war” going

    More BS from Ricky Riccardo – if this is true, then why did Columbia get their drug cartel problem under control, and effectively eliminate their activity in the entire country? How come, Ricky? Could it be because drug use is rampant in Mexico? Oh noes, say it ain’t so, Joe!

    Dmac (ca1d8c)

  33. Huh? According to the U.S. State Department, the DEA and the UN Office of Narcotics Control, coca production has been rising in Colombia, and there is on-going violence … which, many feel, is a direct result of more military intervention and a crackdown not so much on narcotics distributors as on political opponents of the present government (the situation in Colombia being complicated by a 50 plus year old civil war).

    Colombia, several years ago, and Mexico this past year, both decriminalized minor possession. It is not controversial, with narcotics use seen as a rather minor public health issue.

    No tough guy act here… just nothing to hide. And no wish really to communicate with fools who have to resort to childish behavior when they have no knowledge of — nor apparent interest in — learning the basic facts about the subject under discussion.

    Richard Grabman (ec0428)

  34. FACT: Reynosa, Tamps. is not directly across the border from McAllen, Texas.

    FACT: Hidalgo, Texas is the border city/town across from Reynosa, Tamps.

    FACT: McAllen, Texas is several miles away from the Rio Grande River.

    Hidalgo (30550f)

  35. If the USAF can run predator UAV’s from Las Vegas, Nevada, against targets in Afghanistan and (allegedly) lawless areas of Pakistan, why can’t they do the same in Northern Mexico?

    Consul-At-Arms (f4574f)

  36. Over 20 years ago, when there was civil conflict in Nicaragua, Guatamala, and El Salvador, the main reason not to drive from Texas to Costa Rica was southern Mexico and their banditos.

    It is true that if there was no market for drugs in the US there would be less reason for people to break the law and terrorize and kill the populace, but to put the blame on the US addict is a bit like blaming a young woman for being attractive when she is assaulted. Both lines of reasoning are blame-shifting and despicable.

    MD in Philly (70a1ba)

  37. Huh? According to the U.S. State Department, the DEA and the UN Office of Narcotics Control, coca production has been rising in Colombia, and there is on-going violence

    And no wish really to communicate with fools who have to resort to childish behavior when they have no knowledge of

    Only a fool posts statements with no accompanying evidence. So let’s see some objective links for your many statements of alleged “facts.” As for your “childish behavior” remark, who comes on to a blog for the first time and immediately starts making statements proclaiming how superior their intellect and knowledge is, and then questions commenters who don’t agree with them on their supposed lack of “balls?” You did, Ricky. Pure projection on your part. Look up the word if you’re unfamiliar with the language.

    You’ve never posted here before, so apparently you’re ignorant of what’s expected from people who swoop in and start making claims without any apparent substance to back it up. If they don’t provide it, they’re called Trolls. So let’s see it – all of it, or admit that you’re just Trolling.

    Dmac (ca1d8c)

  38. I see my “fans” don’t have the balls to sign with their real names

    No tough guy act here

    Wow, Ricky – you forget what you’ve just posted fairly easily.

    Dmac (ca1d8c)

  39. Richard

    You seem to be making a “chicken – egg” argument.
    It is my opinion that each side of the border is responsible for their part.

    I realize that the voracious appetite US and Canada have for drugs fuels the cartels.
    Those governments have the responsibility to mitigate the damage done by their citizens.

    A Mexican choosing to join up in a cartel and then shoot up the place; or to torture someone to death is on the Mexican people to fix.

    Another question I have is the ethnic makeup of the Los Aztecas and whether or not any of their membership are illegally in the US (and thus are 100% a Mexican problem) and/or carry dual citizenship (US born to Mexican citizen parents) making their actions in Mexico 100% of a Mexican problem.

    My understanding is that the most common type illegally exported firearm (US to Mexico) is the handgun… which seems not to be the Mexican hit man’s weapon of choice.
    Richard, as the guy who is very dialed into cartel weaponry, have you heard whether or not any automatic weapons are coming into Vera Cruz, or Campeche via other nations that border the Caribbean?
    Or along the west coast via Asia?

    I’ve noticed the AK 47 seems to be going out of style there among the cartels, but if I am wrong, who is converting those AK’s to full auto?
    Cottage industry?

    Steve

    Steve G (909b57)

  40. “As it is, the murders in Juarez are supposedly the work of Los Aztecas, a U.S. gang. However, it is being spun to still more intervention in Mexican affairs, and to justify more “Merida Initiative” spending, which doesn’t benefit Mexico, but is propping up U.S. suppliers of equipment and services.”

    What pure, unadulterated bull____ ! Es puro. Huero chingado.

    GeneralMalaise (d63092)

  41. Richard knows little or nothing about the commenters here. I have been going to Mexico for 40 years and had a sizable Mexican practice for many years. The people would come to Orange County and avoid San Diego which is full of illegals. A group of us tried to build a hospital in Ensenada about 30 years ago and I had many Mexican doctor friends. We even had a big party at the Ensenada Rotary club one time thanking us for neurosurgery care of a young girl.

    I wouldn’t dream of going to Ensenada now.

    Richard is going to tell us where in the USA the Mexican gangs got their AK 47s and the other full auto weapons they use.

    Mike K (2cf494)

  42. No, he’s not – running away is his principle MO like the other trolls when called on their bullsh-t.

    Dmac (ca1d8c)

  43. Rather typical of the trolls. They post horse manure and run when they realize that we know more about the topic than they do.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  44. I wouldn’t use the word “troll” but if it makes you happy, go ahead and use it. I have a life, and it is a holiday here: the beach wins over the bitch. I only accessed this site because it popped up at the top of google this AM when I was looking for U.S. reaction to the shooting in Juarez.

    I’m hardly “dialed in” to weaponry, or gangsters,as SteveG writes (post #39)but there hasn’t been the firepower and slaughter seen in states like Veracruz or really anywhere without land access to the U.S. border except Guerrero, which is served by the Port of Lazaro Cardenas (which acts as sort of a feeder for Long Beach). If the U.S. is not the source, or conduit for most of the high powered weaponry here, you’d expect to see more of the border slaughter in other places.

    Damned if I know the “ethnicity” of some prison gang in El Paso. One can assume they are mostly Tejano or descended from Mexicans, but seeing a lot of these are people who’ve been in the U.S. for several generations, no more Mexico’s problem than John Gotti was Italy’s.

    And, that’s all I’ve got. It’s been real, it’s been fun, and I hope it’s been educational for y’all, but I have better things to do this evening.

    Richard Grabman (ec0428)

  45. Yeah, Grabman, the guns have to come from the US because they can’t make it into the interior …

    That’s hilarious logic.

    The claim by Obama last year that “90 percent of the guns recovered in Mexico come from the United States” with the implication that they were bought in the US and smuggled over the border is simply false. Even “factcheck.org”, normally in the tank for the Obama administration, admitted that this figure is false.

    Mexican gang’s favorite guns are fully-automatic models not available to civilians in the US and more likely to be smuggled from black market sources or stolen from Mexican army arsenals.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  46. “And, that’s all I’ve got. It’s been real, it’s been fun, and I hope it’s been educational for y’all, but I have better things to do this evening.”

    Elvis has left the building! And in other news, the body of James Brown is missing from its crypt.

    GeneralMalaise (d63092)

  47. Richard

    seriously

    “one can assume…”?

    I was asking a serious question about Los Aztecos.
    You were speaking as if it was some 100% American gang.
    Mexican gang foot soldier types are primarily made up of illegals and dual citizenship Mexican/Americans

    Steve G (909b57)

  48. Not to mention Los Aztecas was started by a Mexican national (in El Paso, TX… but I dunno how that is El Paso’s fault… it isn’t like they gave a tax credit for a gang start up) and has about 5000 known members in Ciudad Juarez.

    Next time I want to know anything I’ll listen to narcocorridos instead of bothering you

    Steve G (909b57)

  49. “and I’m loosely in the tourism biz” This is a very swishy statement, Richard Grabman. You a coyote, or hire coyotes to help illegals/tourists across the border? We see enough of them down here in southern AZ, but I wouldn’t call them a tourism business.

    The snowbirds’ favorite destination is the border to get cheap drugs, dentists, booze and cigarettes. I think they might change their minds should the bullets start flying around here.

    PatAZ (9d1bb3)

  50. Did you find it as amusing as I did, Steve G., that if smugglers get drugs out of Mexico and into the US, it is the US’ fault. And if smugglers get firearms out of the US and into Mexico, it is the US’ fault …

    SPQR (26be8b)

  51. Comment by SPQR — 3/15/2010 @ 5:00 pm

    They come into Mexico on the same planes that bring the Coke. The street price of an AK in Colombia is about $75…a little more will get you an M-16 or a Galil – these guys (the cartels) buy wholesale.

    AD - RtR/OS! (913281)

  52. Comment by SPQR — 3/15/2010 @ 5:51 pm

    “Poor Mexico, so far from God, so close to the United States!”

    AD - RtR/OS! (913281)

  53. Mexico is a third world out of control. It is A shame, there are some great people there.

    Terry (7d63ac)

  54. I’ll take responsibility…. someone has to and Richard isn’t up to it right now

    SteveG (11baba)

  55. I updated the post with more details on the victims.

    DRJ (daa62a)

  56. I guess the president was not enraged enough when an Air Force soldier was murdered in Juarez in November 2009. How many does it take for him to take any action. The Mexican government is corrupt; they will lie and say they got those who were reesponsible just to appease the American government. I say just close the border completely for an extended period of time.

    SLD (e1b44f)

  57. Fifty years should work!

    AD - RtR/OS! (7a1f69)


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