U.S. to Close Nuevo Laredo Consulate After Gun Battle (Update1)
www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000086&sid=a0.067oQQ.tI&refer=latin_america
July 29 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. government will close its consulate in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, for at least a week after a battle involving ``unusually advanced weaponry'' took place between rival drug gangs in the city, the U.S. Embassy said.

The closure, effective Aug. 1, comes after gunmen attacked two Nuevo Laredo homes with weapons including assault rifles, grenades and a rocket launcher, the Associate Press said. Nuevo Laredo is a city of 375,000 across the Rio Grande River from Laredo, Texas, and Mexico's busiest truck crossing to the U.S.

``I have made this decision so that we can assess the security situation for our employees, American travelers to the region, and visitors to the consulate,'' U.S. Ambassador Tony Garza said in an e-mailed statement. ``As part of our security assessment, we will be gauging what should be a swift and certain response from the government of Mexico, to bring this situation under control.''

More than 70 people have been killed in Nuevo Laredo since the beginning of the year, many of them bound and shot in the head, an execution-style slaying that indicates drug-related violence. When President Vicente Fox sent federal agents to replace the city's police force on June 11, they were shot at by a group of the officers, 41 of whom were arrested and sent to Mexico City, the attorney general's office said.

Consular staff will continue to offer emergency services to U.S. citizens during the closure.

Here is the gun battle they are talking about

Mexican cartels fire bazookas in border city battle
July 29, 2005
www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/20050729-1100-crime-mexico.html
NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico, – Rival drug cartel gunmen fired bazookas, tossed hand grenades and raked each other with machine gun fire in a battle at a home near the U.S. border, police said Friday.
The battle erupted late Thursday when a squad of about 30 masked men opened fire on a suspected drug cartel safe house on a residential street in Nuevo Laredo, across the Rio Grande from Laredo, Texas, blasting off its doors and strafing the facade with bullets.

Police and witnesses said six men trapped in the house returned fire in a gun battle that raged for 20 minutes, littering the street with spent cartridges and sending neighbors diving for cover, although no one was killed. Witnesses said at least three bazooka rounds were fired.

"I grabbed my daughter tight ... and we hid under the bed until the explosions stopped," one neighbor, who identified himself as Carlos, told Reuters as he gazed at the blasted facade of the single-story house.

Nuevo Laredo is a key hub for trade in goods and illegal drugs bound for Texas. It is currently in the grip of a war between powerful drug cartels seeking control of lucrative cocaine, marijuana and amphetamine smuggling routes.

At least 79 people, including 18 police officers, have been shot to death in the city this year in the battle between powerful and well-armed gangs from the western state of Sinaloa and the local Gulf cartel.

The U.S. State Department issued two warnings to American citizens traveling to Mexico this year. The caution was repeated this week by U.S. ambassador to Mexico Tony Garza, who singled out Nuevo Laredo as a crime black spot.

The sun-blasted city of 330,000 people has long been notorious for drug crime and kidnappings and last month suspected cartel hitmen killed the city's new police chief just hours after he was sworn in.

The government sent troops and federal police to take over Nuevo Laredo in the following days, although more than 20 people have since been shot dead.

The city's entire police force was suspended for investigations into the links between local police and the drug gangs. Officers from the purged municipal force only returned to duty this week, decked out in new black-and-white uniforms to distance them from their graft-tainted predecessors.

It may well be the flash-point for the next Mexican-American War.

More related news from the Arizona Republic:

www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0804MexicoUSguns04-ON.html


Mexico: High-powered weapons in bloody drug battles from U.S.

Associated Press
Aug. 4, 2005 08:40 AM

MEXICO CITY - Machine guns, grenades and other high-powered weapons drug smugglers use to kill rivals and wage bloody territorial battles across Mexico pour south from the United States, a spokesman for President Vicente Fox said Thursday.

"The volume of high-technology weapons that enter Mexico and are in the hands of drug traffickers and other professional criminals are those that come from the United States," Ruben Aguilar said at his daily briefing.

A wave of killings and mayhem in the Mexican border city of Nuevo Laredo prompted U.S. Ambassador Tony Garza to shut down on Monday all but emergency services at the American consulate. The shutdown was expected to last a week, and angered the Mexican government.

The decision to close the consulate was prompted in part by a high-powered shootout between attackers who used machine guns, grenades and a rocket launder against a private home in southern Nuevo Laredo - leaving a usually quiet residential street resembling a war zone.

More than 100 people have been killed in Nuevo Laredo this year, including nearly 20 police officers. Authorities on both sides of the border say Mexico's two main drug gangs are fighting for control of the area's smuggling routes into U.S. territory. The violence has continued largely unabated, even after Fox sent federal agents and soldiers to restore order.

Despite the continuing violence in the city across the border from Laredo, Texas, Mexico branded Garza's decision extreme and suggested such actions should only be taken during a war.

Garza met Wednesday with Interior Secretary Carlos Abascal, who emerged from the closed-door discussions saying both sides had reached a temporary agreement to reopen the Nuevo Laredo Consulate in the next few days.

Aguilar said Garza and Abascal did not discuss U.S. weapons brought into this country illegally during Wednesday's meetings, but that the topic was a serious concern of Fox's government.

He insisted the shuttering of the consulate had not strained Mexico-U.S. relations, calling them "very good."

Explosives and automatic weapons are not unique to violence in Nuevo Laredo. Early Monday, two assailants lobbed grenades into a crowded cockfighting ring in the western state of Jalisco, killing four and injuring more than two dozen.

Automatic weapons, meanwhile, are used in drug-related attacks and killings, kidnappings and armed robberies all over the country.

Also Thursday, Aguilar said a Fox plan to use federal authorities and soldiers to crackdown on drug-related violence along the border "has produced results - not all the results we thought it would or wanted it to, but that's why Mexico's government has made the decision to increase the level of effectiveness of this operation."

Aguilar has said in recent days that Public Safety Secretary Ramon Martin Huerta will soon announce concrete plans to amplify and fortify the program, called "Mexico Seguro," or "Safe Mexico,"

BS they get MGs from here
more like from columbia where they get the drugs from

Quoted: More related news from the Arizona Republic: www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0804MexicoUSguns04-ON.html Mexico: High-powered weapons in bloody drug battles from U.S. MEXICO CITY - Machine guns, grenades and other high-powered weapons drug smugglers use to kill rivals and wage bloody territorial battles across Mexico pour south from the United States, a spokesman for President Vicente Fox said Thursday. "The volume of high-technology weapons that enter Mexico and are in the hands of drug traffickers and other professional criminals are those that come from the United States," Ruben Aguilar said at his daily briefing.

Sooooo....we can say that Mr. Aguilar unequivocably supports closing the border, yes?  After all, it is the U.S.'s fault, so one should think that Mexico would completely support sealing off the border.

Sounds good to me!  

Quoted: BS they get MGs from here more like from columbia where they get the drugs from

+1

It happened just a few short blocks from where I'm sitting. One of my employees saw it happening as he tried to exit a theater with his family and the usher told them to stay inside.

It's just plain nuts down here.

43 American citizens have gone missing in Nuevo Laredo in the last year. No ransom, no trace, and certainly no Policia investigation.

Quoted: Quoted: BS they get MGs from here more like from columbia where they get the drugs from +1

or could they be the weapons the US sold to mexico..stolen by their loyal troops/bag men????

Quoted: It happened just a few short blocks from where I'm sitting. One of my employees saw it happening as he tried to exit a theater with his family and the usher told them to stay inside. It's just plain nuts down here.

The fact that the Mexican Government won't allow you to carry any guns certainly doesn't help at all.  (Their hunting permit system is BS, and they make a distinction between hunting rifles and AR-15's)

Quoted: The fact that the Mexican Government won't allow you to carry any guns certainly doesn't help at all.

You ain't whistling Dixie, buddy!

I've been told that pistol permits DO exist here, but semiautos are a nono as are military calibers. I need to go ask at the Mexican consulate to see if there's any truth to that, and if so, I'll be all over it.

In the meantime, if some asshole makes the mistake of getting in front of my truck, he's going to end up as a smear....

The mexican government is incredibly corrupt.  The mexican government and law enforcement is run by drug cartels.

This is just a couple that got out of hand. Even though some Americans were killed in the city will you see the U.S. government do anything about it? No, of course not.

Quoted: Quoted: It happened just a few short blocks from where I'm sitting. One of my employees saw it happening as he tried to exit a theater with his family and the usher told them to stay inside. It's just plain nuts down here. The fact that the Mexican Government won't allow you to carry any guns certainly doesn't help at all.  (Their hunting permit system is BS, and they make a distinction between hunting rifles and AR-15's)

You actually have respect for Mexican law? Do you realize how many Americans are in Mexican governments that did nothing wrong?

Quoted: MEXICO CITY - Machine guns, grenades and other high-powered weapons drug smugglers use to kill rivals and wage bloody territorial battles across Mexico pour south from the United States, a spokesman for President Vicente Fox said Thursday.

When your political neck is on the line, blame somone else.

I watched Fox news yeterday, and I think they showed a piercing from something in the 40mm range that puched a hold through the place.

I guess they have some fire power down there  

Quoted: I watched Fox news yeterday, and I think they showed a piercing from something in the 40mm range that puched a hold through the place. I guess they have some fire power down there

Yeah. They're all coming from America, where 40mm grenades are so common you trip over them in the streets.....

I agree with the decision to keep the consulate closed ... at least until the radiation reaches a safe level.

These assholes are actively seeking to bring their war to the US, where they are close to their supply of cash from crack- and pot-starved Americans.

I have a close family member working in Laredo.  Glad that she is getting out soon.  This kind of thing has been going on in Nuevo Laredo for almost 2 years, ever since she got there.   Probably has been going on longer than that.

Mexico is a shithole.

Quoted: I have a close family member working in Laredo.  Glad that she is getting out soon.

She single and good-looking?

Only kidding.

Ah, hell, Zaphod, I wouldn't know, she's way too close of a family member for that.  Anyway, she works for the fed.gov.

Quoted: More related news from the Arizona Republic: www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0804MexicoUSguns04-ON.html Mexico: High-powered weapons in bloody drug battles from U.S. Associated Press Aug. 4, 2005 08:40 AM MEXICO CITY - Machine guns, grenades and other high-powered weapons drug smugglers use to kill rivals and wage bloody territorial battles across Mexico pour south from the United States, a spokesman for President Vicente Fox said Thursday. "The volume of high-technology weapons that enter Mexico and are in the hands of drug traffickers and other professional criminals are those that come from the United States," Ruben Aguilar said at his daily briefing. A wave of killings and mayhem in the Mexican border city of Nuevo Laredo prompted U.S. Ambassador Tony Garza to shut down on Monday all but emergency services at the American consulate. The shutdown was expected to last a week, and angered the Mexican government. The decision to close the consulate was prompted in part by a high-powered shootout between attackers who used machine guns, grenades and a rocket launder against a private home in southern Nuevo Laredo - leaving a usually quiet residential street resembling a war zone. More than 100 people have been killed in Nuevo Laredo this year, including nearly 20 police officers. Authorities on both sides of the border say Mexico's two main drug gangs are fighting for control of the area's smuggling routes into U.S. territory. The violence has continued largely unabated, even after Fox sent federal agents and soldiers to restore order. Despite the continuing violence in the city across the border from Laredo, Texas, Mexico branded Garza's decision extreme and suggested such actions should only be taken during a war. Garza met Wednesday with Interior Secretary Carlos Abascal, who emerged from the closed-door discussions saying both sides had reached a temporary agreement to reopen the Nuevo Laredo Consulate in the next few days. Aguilar said Garza and Abascal did not discuss U.S. weapons brought into this country illegally during Wednesday's meetings, but that the topic was a serious concern of Fox's government. He insisted the shuttering of the consulate had not strained Mexico-U.S. relations, calling them "very good." Explosives and automatic weapons are not unique to violence in Nuevo Laredo. Early Monday, two assailants lobbed grenades into a crowded cockfighting ring in the western state of Jalisco, killing four and injuring more than two dozen. Automatic weapons, meanwhile, are used in drug-related attacks and killings, kidnappings and armed robberies all over the country. Also Thursday, Aguilar said a Fox plan to use federal authorities and soldiers to crackdown on drug-related violence along the border "has produced results - not all the results we thought it would or wanted it to, but that's why Mexico's government has made the decision to increase the level of effectiveness of this operation." Aguilar has said in recent days that Public Safety Secretary Ramon Martin Huerta will soon announce concrete plans to amplify and fortify the program, called "Mexico Seguro," or "Safe Mexico,"

Doesn’t this sound like the plot for the Clint Eastwood movie “A Fistful of Dollars”?

Quoted: BS they get MGs from here more like from columbia where they get the drugs from

Yep.

Quoted: Quoted: The fact that the Mexican Government won't allow you to carry any guns certainly doesn't help at all.   You ain't whistling Dixie, buddy! I've been told that pistol permits DO exist here, but semiautos are a nono as are military calibers. I need to go ask at the Mexican consulate to see if there's any truth to that, and if so, I'll be all over it. In the meantime, if some asshole makes the mistake of getting in front of my truck, he's going to end up as a smear....

There are in certain cases very restrictive permits that you can get -- but you have to pay a high fee (read bribe) to get them.  You are not guaranteed that the Federales will not honor them, however.  The local police probably will.  This is for pistols.  Forget getting a permit for an AR-15.  You can get hunting permits for hunting guns, but they too are very expensive.  Without a permit, you can serve 2 years in a Mexican jail for even having a single 22LR round in your car.

Zaphod, you need to slip an M60 into your BHB!!

Quoted: Ah, hell, Zaphod, I wouldn't know, she's way too close of a family member for that.  Anyway, she works for the fed.gov.

Yikes!

Quoted: Zaphod, you need to slip an M60 into your BHB!!

No shit.....