An explosive device was detonated in the garden and patio area of the U.S. General Consulate in Nuevo Laredo late Friday. Consul General Donald L. Heflin said nobody was injured.
“We will take security measures for the personnel. Until we have that security level up, we will (not) open for the public,” Heflin said.
According to a department news release, the device was thrown over the fence about 11 p.m. Friday.
“It did go off,” said a consulate official who chose to remain anonymous. “There were no injuries, but windows were damaged.”
Ricardo Nájera, a spokesman with Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office in Mexico City, said federal prosecutors and criminal investigators in ballistics and explosives have opened a case along with other authorities. Nobody has taken responsibility for the explosion at the consulate.
The Consulate General and the Consular Agency in Piedras Negras will be closed to the public Monday and will not reopen until the safety of employees is guaranteed.
“We take this incident very, very seriously,” the anonymous official said. “We’re doing a full investigation along with Mexican authorities.”
The Nuevo Laredo Fire Department and local police responded to the scene in the 3300 block of Allende in Colonia Jardín.
“We were searching for the origin of the explosion, but the incident was not confirmed to us,” said Juan Ernesto Rivera, director of the Protección Civil. “Then officials from the American consulate kept us away from the area.”
Antonio Aguilar Candelaria, assistant director of Nuevo Laredo police, said police officers also were at the scene and that consulate officials kept them away.
People who live near the consulate heard an explosion but did not venture out to the scene, said a lawyer who asked not to be identified. Across the street from the consulate, employees from the Farmacia Guadalajara, a nationally known chain of pharmacies in Mexico, closed down for the night after they heard the blast.
Though the consulate has 24-hour security, it is unknown whether employees there witnessed the incident.
The State Department in March authorized the departure of dependents of U.S. government employees from U.S. consulates in northern Mexican cities until April 12 after the killings of three people connected with the U.S. Consulate in Ciudad Juárez.
The consulate official in Nuevo Laredo said none of the 19 American employees working for the Consulate General had requested the voluntarily departure as of Saturday evening.
U.S. officials in Laredo were aware of the late-night incident.
“We notified all field personnel on the issue,” said investigator Joe E. Baeza, Laredo Police Department spokesman, but he added officials did not increase security at border bridges.
Webb County Sheriff’s Department Chief Fred Garza said deputies were on high alert after receiving reports of an explosive device detonating at the consulate. He said he believes someone executed the “act of intimidation” to prevent U.S. involvement in the drug war in Mexico.
“We feel confident the incident is an isolated incident in Nuevo Laredo,” Garza said.
“We’re involved on this side protecting our borders,” Garza said of U.S. officials.
Garza said he believes the Mexican military has done well in the drug war.
“There’s no doubt in my mind (the Mexican government) will prevail in their battle against drugs,” Garza said. “Before, the cartels operated openly; now (they’ve) got them on the run.”
U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, chairman of the House Subcommittee on Border, Maritime and Global Counterterrorism, said the incident could be an act of retaliation against the Mexican government.
“These groups are getting tougher every day. This is their answer for the actions taken from President Felipe Calderón’s government,” said Cuellar, D-Laredo. “We know that the violence could get worse, but we will be willing to offer greater security to the consulate personnel.”
The FBI; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office are investigating.
Source: MySanAntonio.com
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