At around 11p.m. on Friday night, a small bomb was thrown over a wall of the U.S. Consulate in the Mexican border town of Nuevo Laredo. It is suspected that one of the drug cartels is responsible for hurling the device into the Consulate, though thankfully no one was hurt. This is the second time in the past two months that violence has been directed toward people linked with a U.S. Consulate. Three people were shot in the border town of Ciudad Juarez last month, leading people to believe that the cartels are now beginning to send a stronger message to the United States government regarding their involvement with combating drug violence. The United States has sent millions in aid to Mexico in order to assist President Felipe Calderon in combating Mexico's deadly drug cartel violence.
Image Source: Guillermo Batres/Reuters
Online Source: The New York Times
2 comments:
I actually don't believe this is a message to the US government at all. First of all, the perpetrators of the inactive device thrown at the Consulate in Monterrey were never found. The investigation concluded that they were thrown by smaller criminal elements engaged in activity with each other, not necessarily protesting anything against the US government. In this case, official information indicates the US consulate in Nuevo Laredo was NOT targeted, and the device was thrown by similar criminal elements in a situation with each other. While Barrio Azteca has been implicated in the Cuidad Juarez Consulate shootings, the motive still has not been made clear, so we have no idea if a message was being sent to three individuals and their families, or the US government in general.
If you've been following the drug war in Mexico, you know that subtlety is not the hallmark of cartel activity, let alone the messages they send. If they wanted to publicly protest US involvement in the drug war, we would know exactly who threw the grenades and why those Consulate employees were shot. We'd be reading narcobanners hung across Mexico with warnings against US government assistance to the Mexican government. Bottom line, it's not wise to make a mountain out of a molehill when you don't have the whole story.
I have been following the drug war in Mexico. I definitely see your point and I agree that the cartels are usually not subtle in expressing their views and displaying the amount of power they have in the region. There is a chance that it is not the drug cartels who were responsible in Ciudad Juarez, Nuevo Laredo, and Monterrey in 2008. However, it was merely a suggestion and something to ponder in a region where the drug cartels have more power than the local and federal government right now.
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