Posted on 02/20/2007 10:40:48 AM PST by SwinneySwitch
Horacio Garza Garza, a federal congressman from Tamaulipas and former Nuevo Laredo mayor, was critically wounded and his chauffeur killed Monday when their car was ambushed near the airport.
The latest attack against a well-known public figure from Nuevo Laredo came one day after the Mexican government announced it was sending an additional 3,300 federal troops to the Texas-Mexico border and two days before a visit by U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to Laredo.
Late Monday, Garza was placed in an ambulance and taken to an unknown destination in a caravan of several police cars that sped off toward the Nuevo Laredo airport.
Garza, 65, was heading to the Nuevo Laredo airport about 7 p.m. Monday to board a place bound for Mexico City when his vehicle was hit by a volley of shots.
The congressman, who was shot in the neck, chest and leg, was in a Nuevo Laredo hospital under heavy guard, said Laredo Mayor Raul Salinas.
The chauffeur, identified by Tamaulipas state police as Hector Morales Juárez, died at the scene.
Two witnesses to the aftermath of the shooting said Garza was being driven in a red Chevrolet Suburban with local license plates. Six bullet holes were clearly visibly on the driver's side window. Salinas said he was “in shock and disbelief'' over the ambush.
“This was an awful incident and really unfortunate against a man who has been a wonderful public servant,'' Salinas said while enroute to Laredo from Falfurrias, where he attended a rosary earlier in the evening.
The congressman was expected to be transferred to a hospital in Mexico City, Salinas said.
The Laredo mayor said he last saw the congressman on Saturday, at the Abrazo ceremony on the Juárez-Lincoln International Bridge.
Part of the annual Washington's Birthday Celebration festivities, officials from the United States and Mexico meet in the middle of the bridge and give each other an “abrazo'' or hug.
Salinas said he had been in contact with U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, to offer assistance to Mexican authorities.
“In Laredo, we've got additional personnel at the international bridges as a precaution,'' Salinas said.
Garza, a member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), Mexico's former ruling party, represents Tamaulipas' first congressional district.
He served as mayor of Nuevo Laredo from 1993 to 1995 and again from 1999 to 2001.
He also had previously served in the Mexican congress, from 1991 to 1994, and held several posts with the Tamaulipas state government.
The incident, the latest in a city where attacks targeting public officials has become routine, comes on the heels of a request by the governors of Tamaulipas and Nuevo León for more troops to combat drug trafficking in this area.
The soldiers are expected to arrive in the two border states soon, according to reports in the Mexican press.
For almost three years, Nuevo Laredo has been the scene of a turf war between rival drug cartels that has left hundreds dead.
Mexican officials did not speculate on whether an organized crime outfit was behind Monday's assassination attempt, but one knowledgeable U.S. official said it was believed the Zetas, the ruthless enforcement arm of the Gulf Cartel, was behind the attack, mostly likely in retaliation for the additional troops being sent.
“A lot of it has to do with the situation of the military coming here to Nuevo Laredo,'' the official said.
The additional troops will augment military presence already along the Mexican side of the border.
Drug traffickers are believed to have been behind the 2005 killings of top officials in Nuevo Laredo, including Alejandro Dominguez Coello, the police chief gunned down within hours of assuming the post, and a city councilman.
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cdanini@express-news.net
This is going to start spilling over.
Mexico is a quagmire. Let's get out now.
I wonder what effect legalizing many illicit drugs (and heavily taxing them) would have on these fine citizens of Mexico ???
Mexico is a quagmire. Let's get out now.
----
Well the Mexicans ARE getting out -- and walking across our border into the Land of Oz...
Los dos Laredos Ping!
If you want on, or off this S. Texas/Mexico ping list, please FReepMail me.
Going to start? It is already here. All you have to do is watch our local news every night.
Poor Mexico. No wonder the people there take the risks they do to get here. "La Frontera" : so far from Mexico City and Washington, D.C. that the bureaucrats and politicians simply do not care.
I really hope this "Mexican Troop Surge" has a positive effect. I don't understand why they didn't do this ages ago.
Yea, I read this in the Laredo paper this morning. I thought the part about covering the bridges so no one would cross, was cool. What about the rest of the open border? Remember the congressman a few weeks ago that hired an elephant and a mariachi band to walk back and forth across the border while the band followed along.
It also will contribute to global warming.
Border stomping[elephants in South Texas]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1718130/posts
Don't forget the water fountains in the desert.
Here is a link for MEXICAN MAYHEM INVENTORY Blog.
Other legislator assassination is previous entry.
Please leave comments, I've been maintaining this huge compendium of the madness for a year but have no idea how to get it "out" there.
Theories run wild about ambush on Mexican congressman
Web Posted: 02/21/2007 01:44 AM CST
Mariano Castillo
Express-News Border Bureau
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/mexico/stories/MYSA022107.01A.Airport.hit.129a03b.html
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