Grenade attack at U.S. Consulate in Mexico

February 12, 2013

On Thursday, the Dallas News reported:

Three grenades exploded Thursday evening in Nuevo Laredo, just feet from the U.S. Consulate office, sources in the Mexican border city said.

No injuries were reported, but the explosions rattled the neighborhood, as locals scurried for cover amid a firefight between what’s believed to be members of the Zetas criminal group and their former allies, the Gulf cartel, which is making a push to reclaim the territory.

The two groups appear to be battling, leaving a trail of killings and burned houses. In recent days, sources said, seven people have been killed — three of them Americans — and five homes torched.

The U.S. Consulate issued an alert, and Mexican soldiers were deployed to guard the building.

This is the second time in three years, an explosion has rocked the U.S. facility.

In April 2010, someone tossed an explosive device onto the grounds of the U.S. consulate in Nuevo Laredo. The bomb broke windows and caused some minor damage, but no injuries were reported.

Nuevo Laredo is just across the river from Laredo, TX.

In March 2010, U.S. consulate employees in Juarez were murdered in targeted attacks, after leaving a child’s birthday party.

In two separate attacks, cartel gunmen murdered two Americans attached to the consulate. Authorities believe that members of the Mexican drug gang known as the Aztecas actually carried out the attacks.

Lesley Enriquez Redelfs, a consulate employee, along with her husband, Arthur Redelfs, a detention officer with the El Paso County Sheriff's Department were gunned down as they were leaving a child's birthday party. The couple was murdered after being chased-down by the hit men. Their baby daughter who was in the backseat survived the assault.

Also shot to death in the coordinated attacks was the husband of consulate worker, Jorge Salcido Ceniceros, after gunmen boxed-in his car. His wife, Hilda Antillon, was traveling in the car behind him and was uninjured, though the couple's two children were wounded in the attack.

The hit squads used AK-47s as well as 9mm handguns.

source