Two American law enforcement agents, both employed by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), were ambushed in a roadside attack in Mexico midday Tuesday – what the Washington Post describes as a “lethal escalation” in the country’s on-going drug wars. The two men are reported to have been traveling alone by car between the customs agency’s attaché office at the American Embassy in Mexico City and Monterrey. One of the two agents, Jaime J. Zapata, was killed in the attack. The other was wounded and seems likely to survive.
Upon receiving word of the attack, US Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said both men had been “shot in the line of duty.”
The Post suggests the Tuesday assassination was the first time a US agent had been killed in Mexico in over two decades. In 1985, DEA agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena was kidnapped and tortured by drug traffickers in Guadalajara. The “aggressive” US response to that murder is often referenced to explain why Mexican drug cartels had, up until yesterday, steered clear of specifically targeting US officials in Mexico.
It’s too early to say anything conclusively, but there are some indications that “targets” is exactly what the ICE agents were on Tuesday. A source within the law enforcement community tells Bill Conroy at Narco News that he has few doubts that those who attacked the two ICE officials “knew they were agents.” For one, says Conroy, the black SUV the men were traveling in is reported to have had diplomatic plates. Again, however, many of the other details about the incident still seem decidedly speculative.
Equally speculative is what the US response to the Tuesday attack will be. Janet Napolitano’s statement following the killings suggested some sort of response – if only in the form of a more firm US commitment to Mexico’s prosecution of its current fight against cartels. The US Homeland Security Secretary on Tuesday:
“Let me be clear: any act of violence against our ICE personnel…is an attack against all those who serve our nation and put their lives at risk for our safety. We remain committed in our broader support for Mexico's efforts to combat violence within its borders.”
George Grayson an expert on Mexico and drug trafficking at the College of William and Mary in Virginia, tells the Wall Street Journal that “In terms of the U.S. law enforcement community, this will greatly raise the significance of Mexico.”
As new foreign aid numbers released this week appear to indicate, additional funding for Mexico doesn’t appear to be coming through the State Dept. whose foreign operations assistance request for fiscal year 2012 shows military and police aid dropping from $112 million in 2011 to $102 million for 2012. According to Just the Facts, this means any additional Mexico aid – namely the $500 million pledged by Sec. of State Hillary Clinton to Mexico in January – would have to come through a large supplemental request later this year, or through the more opaque US Defense budget. More in the Just the Facts weekly podcast.
For its part, ICE falls within the often inchoate labyrinth that is the Department of Homeland Security. In Mexico ICE agents have traditionally have traditionally been tasked with investigating narcotics smuggling as well as money laundering, organized crime and human smuggling.
In Mexico City:
· The AP reports that a weekend shootout just outside of the capital now appears to be linked to a dispute between drug gangs “tied to La Familia.” Alfredo Castillo, attorney general of Mexico state, which borders the Mexican capital, says groups were fighting over territory in Nezahualcoyotl for local drug sales when the shootings occurred. The announcement by the state’s top prosecutor is the first time authorities have officially linked a major Mexican cartel to violence in or around the Mexican capital. The comments also come after the government claimed La Familia, in particular, was on the retreat.
· Further south, in Oaxaca, social unrest of a different sort as President Felipe Calderon traveled to Oaxaca city only to be met by mass protests. The AP says teachers led demonstrations against their president while Mexican security forces used tear gas and potentially live ammunition (the latter remains unconfirmed) to disperse the crowds. For their part, protestors a torched a government vehicle and, according to the AP, “beat the Oaxaca state Public Safety Secretary Marco Tulio Lopez when he tried to call for calm outside the government offices.” The protests came in reaction to a decree that Calderon signed Monday giving parents tax breaks on private school tuition.
· And from EFE, news that the Mexican Senate, speaking before diplomats from several Central American nations on Tuesday, promised to draft a new immigration law that guarantees the human rights of undocumented migrants passing through the country. Among the points to be discussed in the coming weeks, says EFE, are “when a migrant becomes the victim of or a witness to a crime,” whether a migrant’s stay in Mexico should be “authorized until the legal procedures conclude” and if a migrant would “receive permission to work in the country during that period.” There will also be discussion about whether or not undocumented migrants should have access to health, legal and financial services in Mexico.
· Following up on yesterday’s headline about the US and Argentina, the Wall Street Journal reports today that the Argentine government rejected a US request Tuesday that security equipment confiscated last week be returned north. “I want to emphasize the need for our equipment to be returned promptly by the government of Argentina regardless of what motivated this inexplicable behavior,” Paul Stockton, the assistant secretary of defense for the Americas, said on Tuesday. US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Frank Mora, described the ongoing row as “serious,” adding that the US had “never experienced a similar situation with another country”. To that Argentine officials responded that the U.S. needed to learn that Argentina has its own laws which must be respected. Cristina Kirchner’s cabinet chief, Anibal Fernandez decided to take it a bit further on Argentine radio Tuesday:
“Just imagine what would have happened if an Argentine aircraft had taken the same kind of material to the United States. [The Argentines] would all be in Guantanamo in orange overalls.”
· In other issues of US-Latin American relations, US Assistant Secretary of State Arturo Valenzuela, who spoke before a House Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere Tuesday (full text here), said the US continues to examine whether or not Venezuela’s cooperation with Iran violates international sanctions on the Iranian regime. The statement came in response to a question from subcommittee chairman Connie Mack (R-FL) who said over the weekend that he would like to see a “full scale economic embargo” placed on Venezuela. To be fair to Mr. Valenzuela, his written statement dealt with a host of issues, including increased US support for anti-crime/anti-drug initiatives in Central America. On that issue, here’s what Valenzuela had to say:
“Our engagement with Central America is especially pivotal. Through our Central America Security Strategy, we are reassessing how we can more rapidly, and effectively, reverse the worrisome decline of citizen safety in Central America. At the President’s and Secretary’s direction, we are examining ways in which to enhance cooperation on citizen security, especially focused on Central America, in a way that ensures we are mindful of and addressing gaps that transnational criminal organizations may be seeking to exploit. We are working with partners to ensure that Central America is both a development and foreign policy priority, and that pooled donor resources have a greater chance of positively affecting the trajectory there.”
Valenzuela, along with USAID’s Mark Feierstein, and the Inter-American Foundation’s Robert Kaplan will be back on the Hill tomorrow for a similar hearing on Latin America being chaired by Robert Menendez’s Senate subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, Peace Corps, and Global Narcotics.
· The Miami Herald reports that the trial of Luis Posada Carriles has been officially delayed after the El Paso judge in the case said she needed more time to decide whether or not a mistrial should be declared. Posada’s attorney requested such a move after the prosecution called as a witness a Cuban counterintelligence agent who, in the Herald’s words, “failed to deliver relevant documents to the defense in a timely fashion.”
· The Herald also says presentation of US free trade deals with Colombia and Panama should be expected in Congress by mid-year. This according to Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Rooney who said Monday that a “senior U.S. working group” is in Bogota this week to “assess progress Colombia has made in labor law reform and in protecting labor union leaders from violence.” The group will report back to President Obama and his cabinet later this month. From January to October 2010, the government reported 25 union leaders were killed. The Unified Center for Workers said this week that by its count, 46 union leaders were assassinated last year.
· A critique of the proposed China-Colombia “dry canal” from Mateo Samper at AQ. A look at more of the pros and cons of the idea from UPI.
· In Ecuador, BBC Mundo says the Constitutional Court has given the “green light” to President Correa’s proposed popular referendum. An April vote is expected.
· In Venezuela, the AP says “dozens” of opposition lawmakers boycotted a Tuesday speech made by Gen. Henry Rangel to honor independence leader Simon Bolivar. The boycott came after Rangel suggested last year that Venezuela's military would not accept an opposition victory in the country's 2012 presidential vote.
· In Nicaragua, the New York Times on Daniel Ortega and campaign season in Nicaragua.
· Video of Kate Doyle speaking at UC Berkeley about the right to information, the opening of once secret archives, and human rights prosecutions around Latin America. Also on freedom to information issues, news on the creation of new organization, Brasil Aberto, to push for passage of a freedom of public information law in Brazil. Transparency legislation passed the lower house of Congress in April 2010, but, FreedomInfo, says such legislation has since “languished” in the Senate where it has been assigned for review to four committees. And in El Salvador, El Faro on continued delays in getting the details of its Access to Information Law sorted out – a hold up apparently attributable to the Gana party.
· In the Miami Herald, Ira Kurzban, lawyer to exiled former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, publishes an opinion on the possible return of his client – a return which he says is now dependent on South Africa.
· Honduras Culture and Politics on the movements of the notorious golpista Roberto Micheletti who made an unusual public appearance Tuesday, acting as the keynote speaker at a conference of the far right Unión Cívica Democratica (UCD), fittingly entitled “Antidote to Twenty-First Century Socialism.”
· And finally, back to Mexico where a fascinating July 2008 cable from the US Embassy in Mexico speaks to the issue of inequality in the country. The US Embassy: “The net wealth of the ten richest people in Mexico – a country where more than 40% of the population lives in poverty – represents roughly 10% of the country’s GDP.” The cable goes on to profile the Mexican 10, including how they made their money (h/t David Sasaki).
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