US Immigration Agent Killed in Mexico
So far all of the information that I’ve seen published about the shooting death of a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency in northern Mexico has been basic facts.
The slain agent’s name is Jaime Zapata, an ICE agent since 2006. He was stationed for a while in Laredo, Texas and was recently reassigned to work in Mexico City, in the agency’s attaché office at the American Embassy. He and a fellow agent were traveling from Mexico City to Monterrey, about 150 miles from the border with Texas, when the shooting occurred.
Typically American immigration agents are involved in major investigations of trafficking, in conjunction with Mexican law enforcement. And on Tuesday, the American agents were clearly driving into dangerous territory. The police in San Luis Potosí State said the attack occurred on a main highway about midway between Mexico City, the capital, and Monterrey, the same highway where, a month ago, a group of armed men clashed with the federal police in a running battle that left five presumed criminals dead.
Apparently the stretch of road where the attack occurred is “rife with false checkpoints run by drug cartel gunmen.” Mexican and US authorities have warned about the dangers of traveling in that area. About a month ago a group of presumed drug traffickers clashed in a gun battle with the Mexican military, five of the alleged traffickers were killed.
The second agent, traveling with Zapata, has not been identified, but is said to be in stable condition.
The repercussions to the relations between Mexico and the US are as yet to be mentioned. The NYT reported, in passing, that
[Photo courtesy ice.gov]The killing of an agent from the Drug Enforcement Administration in Mexico in 1985 led to strained relations between officers on both sides of the border, and between the Mexican and American governments.
