Yesterday, a group of gunmen in a Mexican police vehicle attacked a U.S. Embassy vehicle containing three active duty U.S. Marines, injuring two. Details of the incident are now emerging. According to a joint statement from the Mexican navy and the Public Security Secretariat “The shooting occurred around 8 a.m. on a wooded stretch of a mountain road and came after the embassy vehicle apparently already had escaped an ambush that had been laid by four other vehicles.” McClatchy reports that . . .
That ambush took place when U.S. personnel and an employee of the Mexican navy were headed to a mountain installation known as El Capulin. The U.S. vehicle, a gray four-door Toyota SUV, had left the main highway and had turned down a dirt road when a vehicle with armed men cut it off.
Google-Fu fails me. The nature of the El Capulion installation and its mission remain a mystery. A U.S. Embassy spokesmen declined to say which federal agency employs the Marines or provide details of their mission in Mexico. A DEA spokeperson said the Marines weren’t theirs.
When the embassy vehicle sought to return to the main highway, the assailants opened fire. Three other vehicles carrying gunmen joined the chase, firing on the embassy vehicle.
The Mexican naval official radioed for help, and Mexican army and federal police units were summoned, the statement said.
Mexican news reports said the embassy vehicle had reached the main two-lane highway heading toward Cuernavaca when federal police opened fire. Photos show that the embassy vehicle had clearly visible diplomatic license plates.
The government statement did not provide an explanation for why the federal police fired on the U.S. vehicle or indicate whether federal police might have confused the embassy vehicle for one carrying the assailants. It said the federal police involved were providing explanations to prosecutors to determine if they had criminal responsibility.
Let’s hope the Mexican feds haven’t adopted the cartels’ interrogation techniques. In any case, it’s hardly likely the truth of this matter will emerge.
The U.S. and Mexican government’s silence on the attack and the media’s disinterest in the Americans’ activities is reminiscent of the murder of Jaime Zapata. Cartel members wielding weapons enabled by ATF Operation Fast and Furious gunned down the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement Agent on February 15, 2011 in San Luis Potosí, Mexico.
We still don’t know what Agent Zapata was doing in Mexico, despite the fact that his partner Victor Avila survived the attack. And has joined the Wrongful Death lawsuit filed by Zapata’s family against the Department of Justice.
Clearly, the United States government is heavily involved in covert operations south of the border. They’re doing business with some bad people. To what end?
It’s high time that Congressional investigators widened their Fast and Furious probe to find out what Uncle Sam’s up to in Mexico with our Marines, soldiers, lawyers, guns and money.
Forward to Obama and Napolitano: WAIT for instructions. In saner times we would go down there and straighten things out properly. Money for a billion plus hollow points for domestic use, but not a dime for closing the f’n boarder. Great job guys!
I think they’re just trying to work out which button closes the border, what we’re going to do to make up for the destroyed labor market and where we’re going to get the money to do all that.
Very good point about the money. 450 Million for ammo but 700 million to build a proper fence is a waste according to them.
We’re having quite the bad guy shooting Friday.
19 hurt in overnight Chicago shootings.
2 dead and 9 hurt in NYC shooting.
3 US Marines hurt in Mexico shootings.
Let’s see: Chicago, NYC, and Mexico. What do they have in common? Oh yes, lots of gun control and laws that make innocent law-abiding citizens defenseless sheeple.
Don’t forget 3 injured 1 dead on Oakland last night, of and San Jose now has 31 homicides this year! Yeah them!
For here in CA most of this stuff is gang related just like Mexico.
There seems, as of yet, to be confusion as to the nationality of the injured personnel. The State Dep’t is only saying that one of their vehicles was fired upon in the incident.
So maybe the US was escorting Mexican nationals and came under fire?
Isn’t that considered an act of war? Not that Obama will do anything, but just sayin….
Maybe that or a Mexican security detail of some sort that was escorting our people. Either way, this is bound to be interesting.
Maybe it will give Issa and gang more ammo to press Obama on the whole Mexico thing. I love Mexico I really do, but to be honest you would be a fool to travel there right now. Sure you can go to big resorts, but I like going where tourists don’t go.
I am hoping that the administration will get off their collective butts and make a stand on this. If the Mexican government can’t clean up this crap then we will. In the end it is better for everyone, especially the Mexican people who are defenseless right now.
I’ve never been and now I’m kicking myself for not taking the opportunity when the economy was stronger (and I was making waaay better money than I do now), and before this drug war got so ugly.
I have a buddy who LOVES Mexico and used to go every other year or so. Even he won’t go anymore.
In all likely hood 5 days from now there won’t even be a vague reference to the incident. Why are we putting our most valuable resources in such idiotic places under maned and under staffed. Bring them home. If the Afgan’s can turn their guns on our men, they have enough fighting spirit to maintain their own security. As far as the cartels are concerned, they are the aggressors who violate our boarders with impunity, commit unspeakable violence and this administration does nothing but try to disarm private citizens, putting their safety in the hands of LE that hit 9 bystanders out of , what, 14 shot at 10 feet. Bring our guys home, station them on both boarders, or let them do their job where they are. Enough is enough.
Why were Marines in Mexico on official business? I thought it was the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service’s job to protect diplomats?
And for all you people who think that US civilians couldn’t stand up to the US military in a civil war, it looks like the Mexican’s aren’t having a problem doing so.
Unless they were actually guarding someone, they were probably unarmed.
Are you genuinely equating the Mexican military to the US military? LOL – that is too funny!
Can you please go down to your local bar and film yourself telling any US servicemen there your theory, then post the results to youtube as the video should be hilarious.
Yes, if we had the kind of civil war that is going on in Mexico at present, our military would be in as much trouble as theirs. We did have a civil war, if you’ll recall. That took four years and many lives to settle.
and before that we did pretty good against a super power with a bunch of farmers and shopkeepers, 1776.
close the border and let the mexicans sort out their own problems. legalize drugs here would be a help to them.
Again, why do you think human prohibition work when every other form fails? Violent crime is much higher in the US among the natural born population than it is among immigrants. Right on on the drug thing, at least weed.
b.p. i have no problem at all with legal immigration. but when mexico gets into this much turmoil it can and has boiled over into the states. the mosr famous of course being pancho villa’s little sight seeing trip to columbus, new mexico in 1916. we can argue humane changes to the immigration policies all day. the guys looking to earn an honest living aren’t the ones i worry about. it’s those guys that like to decorate bridges with headless bodies that i’d like to see stopped at the border.
And that’s why you deregulate the legal immigration process. The vast majority of the guys risking their lives to sneak across the border are doing so to make a living here, and would gladly wait in line, pay a fee and pass a background check to do so. That would make it a whole hell of a lot easier to catch the legitimate criminals trying to sneak in.
Lets employ legal Americans before making it easy for someone from Mexico to come here for work. If they are such an asset to the workforce they should make Mexico a better country by working there.
News update: the Marines were there to train Mexican military/police, were in a diplomatic vehicle driven by a Mexican Marine on a rural road on the way to Cuernavaca, when they happened upon a running gunbattle between police and gang members. In the confusion, the Mexican police shot up the embassy vehicle thinking it belonged to the gang.
so the mexican police got trained by the nypd?
Sounds like an act of war from the drug cartels. I bet they told B.O. and halder that they will have their jobs for life if they don’t do anything. We need to bring back the Teddy method on foreign policy. “Talk softly and carry a big stick.”
If it is the opening shot in an all out fight then it might actually make this year’s election a bit less boring.
“Two U.S. police instructors were accidentally shot and wounded by Mexican police early on Friday after being mistaken for criminals, a Mexican government security official said.
The car in which the U.S. police were traveling had diplomatic plates and was driven by a Mexican marine, the security official added. The two U.S. officials were in Mexico to help train police, the official said.
After gunmen in several cars fired on the Americans’ car, federal police arrived and apparently opened fire as well,”
http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/08/24/13460805-2-us-government-employees-wounded-by-mexican-police?lite
Cartels, Commies, Jihadies, Street Thugs and that’s just the White House
Covert? They were Marines Security Guards for the embassy in a clearly marked embassy vehicle. What’s covert about that?
Marines have been providing security to embassies for a long time. Sounds to me like there was a diplomatic meeting at an off site location and this was a shift change for the guards.
Sometimes people want to see conspiracy.
Foghorn, I think it’s petty that you are linking this incident to the F&F scandal. Why would they be connected other than both involving Mexico? Also, Marines guard the US Embassies. That’s why they were in an embassy vehicle.
Take your tinfoil hat off on this one.
Actually, I wrote this rewrite of Nick’s initial report. (Byline changed.)
Both ambushes/shootings happened to U.S. personel involved in secret operations inside Mexico.
looks like we are in the wrong place at the wrong time, we need get out of the middle east and think about sending troops into Mexico now .
Were our Marines allowed to be armed while off post in Mexico?
That’s the 64,000 question. I remember being in the Marines, having lots of combat gear and M16’s, but absolutely zero ammo. There was one “safety officer” who had perhaps two full mags. Not totally defenseless, but too close for me.
There’s no reason to have defenseless Marines south of the border in one of the most violent places in the world. Some of the higher ups may disagree, but some of them see soldiers as expendable pawns anyways.
I’d like to know what those devil dogs were packing, if anything.
accur 81, differences in branches. if we had weapons, we had ammo. except for ceremonial purposes one was never issued with out the other. and these” secret hill top installations” we had them in my day in thailand. one could only be reached by helo’s. they overlooked laos and cambodia and with the proper autherisation parts of china.
Time to set up a little mutual self defense treaty/agreement with our amigo to the south. Time to take the gloves off and help them to fight the criminal jihadi investing their nation. And I’m not talking about using the commando deskriders to fight it anymore. I’m talking about the pros from Dover (er, that would be Camp LeJune).
I could be wrong, but I’m beginning to suspect that Los Zetas don’t like us.
What’s the over/under for the total of b/s cover stories we get? I’d ask about the same for true facts of the incident , but everybody would know it’ll be 0.
Why the hell are embassy vehicles in one of the most violent 3rd-world countries not equipped with ballistic protection, run-flat tires and a remotely-operated pop-up Dillon Mini-Gun Turret?
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