Posted on 06/11/2005 8:45:32 PM PDT by SwinneySwitch
NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico — The bloodshed continued in this border city Saturday when gunfire erupted between federal and city police, leaving one federal agent dead, officials said.
Above: Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, police officers dressed in blue are detained by the Mexican military. Forty-one of the officers were detained after a shootout with federal agents.
Below: Family members of detained municipal police officers protested at the Palacio Federal to have them released. The protest intensified when the officers were trucked out by the Mexican military.
There were conflicting reports as to what sparked the shootout between the two law enforcement groups. A press release issued by Mayor Dañiel Peña confirmed that one agent from the Agencia Federal de Investigación, which is Mexico's equivalent to the FBI, was killed in the melee around 10 a.m. on a road near this city's country club.
The shooting is just the latest to rock this border town, which was already reeling from the shooting death of its newly-appointed police chief on Wednesday. At least 60 people have been slain here this year, most believed to be gang-related, sparking fear among locals and driving away tourists. The U.S. State Department has singled Nuevo Laredo out in a recent advisory, warning travelers to use common sense when visiting Mexican border cities.
Oscar Mendoza Arriaga, a municipal police commandant, said Saturday's shooting was the result of “confusion” because the federal agents weren't in uniform. He said the federal agents were in the back of three pickup trucks, some with guns.
“So the police tried to do a routine check, but the people in the truck fired at them,” said Mendoza, who arrived at the scene of the shooting, which lasted a few minutes, after it was over. “The big problem is these people are federal.”
There were reports, however, that the municipal police fired first.
Officials from the federal agency could not be reached for comment. A supervisor at the Palacio Federal, which was lined with armored vehicles and a convoy of federal paramilitary police, declined to comment.
Forty-one municipal police officers were detained and were possibly on their way to Mexico City escorted by military.
The Mexican army hauled the 41 officers out of the Palacio Federal at 6:15 p.m. in two large troop trucks filled with machine gun-toting soldiers. Outside, family members of the police officers slammed a huge metal gate at the building back and forth in protest, yelling, “Don't let them leave!”
Federal agents were reportedly sent to this city 2 ½ hours south of San Antonio in the wake of the brutal killing Wednesday night of Police Chief Alejandro Dominguez Coello, 54. The former president of the chamber of commerce, Dominguez had taken over as police chief just hours before he was shot.
City leaders have said more help from the federal government is needed to combat drug gangs that torment this city of some 400,000 people, and many other municipalities along the 2,000-mile northern border of Mexico.
Hundreds of Mexicans have died so far this year in gangland violence, largely attributed to drug cartels battling for drug shipping routes into the United States.
Saturday's death brings the total number of dead officers here to eight so far this year.
Agents standing guard outside the Palacio Federal on Saturday afternoon said they arrived from Mexico City earlier in the day. Many of them were dressed in plain clothes and Kevlar vests, with the letters “AFI” pasted across in white letters.
“How do you know if it is the police or not,” said Mendoza, the city police commandant, pointing at a federal agent not in uniform and a machine gun in his hands.
A 31-year-old federal agent, who asked that his name not be used, said the agents were working undercover.
“We don't wear uniforms so that people don't know that we are investigating,” the agent said.
Mendoza said there were only a few city officers at the scene initially. The others came in as backup.
“The rest of the officers went as support, but they said all of them have to be detained,” Mendoza said.
He said a legal document asking that the city officers remain in Nuevo Laredo was ignored. The final destination of the detained officers wasn't available; however, family members, some of whom communicated with the officers by cell phone, believed they were being taken to Mexico City.
Peña, the mayor, said the city police officers doubted the authenticity of the convoy of trucks and were nervous after a previous incident in which several people in a truck marked with the letters “AFI” attacked state police officers.
“The sadness of this is that it was simply from confusion, when there should be a code of identification,” he said. “All authorities should coordinate. These types of incidents happen because of the lack of coordination.”
Several passersby near the Palacio Federal were in awe of the rumbling convoy of soldiers in trucks and Humvees, and of the sound of irate family members of the detained officers yelling.
An outspoken 45-year-old man who buys and sells used trucks spoke out at a nearby street corner, verbalizing what many residents here think — that some police officials are involved in the drug trade. As he spoke, some people moved along, as if to publicly disassociate from his views.
“If the government wanted to stop the violence from drug trafficking, they would have done it a long time ago,” he said. “Now it's getting out of hand. No one wants to be held responsible.”
He pleaded for the United States to take an active role to clean the “cockroaches” out of the city. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
jbogan@express-news.net
Above: Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, police officers dressed in blue are detained by the Mexican military. Forty-one of the officers were detained after a shootout with federal agents.
Below: Family members of detained municipal police officers protested at the Palacio Federal to have them released. The protest intensified when the officers were trucked out by the Mexican military.
"There were conflicting reports as to what sparked the shootout between the two law enforcement groups."
Sounds like a turf war and I don't think it's about who has jurisdiction.
(Jesse Bogan/Express-News)
People scatter as the Mexican military hauls away 41 Nuevo Laredo police officers.
Please FReepmail me if you want on or off this South Texas/Mexico ping list.
Somebody must have tried to cut in on FOXES money.
Problem is, he has no interest in doing so. He and daddy are too busy kissy facing with Bubba Clinton and paving the way for the New World Order (no borders).
many a civil war have started this way
Old Mexico has had its share of revolucions in the past!!
Bingo. Anyone who doesn't understand why Bush will not secure the border, this is the explaination in a nutshell...
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