Nuevo Laredo, Mexico is just across the Rio Grande from Laredo, Texas. Texas reader BwB sends in word that over the weekend Nuevo Laredo witnessed a deadly shootout between local police and the federales:
NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico — One federal agent was shot and 41 municipal cops were held under military guard Saturday after a shootout between city and federal police.
Reports conflicted over what sparked the daylight battle between the law enforcement groups and the condition of the federal agent.
Mayor Dañiel Peña said Feliciano Campos González, an agent from the Agencia Federal de Investigación, Mexico's equivalent of the FBI, was shot to death in the melee about 10 a.m. on a road near this city's country club.
Mexican drug cartels pretty much own the streets of Nuevo Laredo--last Wednesday they shot the new police chief to death just 6 hours after he had taken office. Drug-related violence has claimed 60 lives this year already.
As for what may have caused the local police and federales to open fire on one another, confusion seems to be as good an explanation as any, though rank incompetence and criminal tactics shouldn't be ruled out:
Oscar Mendoza Arriaga, a municipal police commander, said Saturday's shooting was the result of confusion because the federal agents weren't in uniform.
He said the federal agents, some with guns, were in the back of three pickups.
"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 after it was over. "The big problem is these people are federal."
There were reports, however, that the municipal police fired first.
And the attorney general's office said the 32 federal agents never fired a shot.
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Federal agents reportedly were sent to this city 21/2 hours south of San Antonio in the wake of the 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.
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Agents standing guard outside the federal building Saturday afternoon said they arrived from Mexico City earlier in the day.
Many of them were dressed in civilian clothes and Kevlar vests, with the letters "AFI" emblazoned across in white letters.
"How do you know if it is the police or not?" said Mendoza, the city police commander, pointing at a federal agent not in uniform and a machine gun in his hands.
It's often hard to tell who's who because officers frequently dress like civilians to hide their identity and criminals are known to dress like police or military.
We are insane to keep the border open when cities just on the other side can descend into such lawlessness and chaos at any moment.
