I still have information coming in from various sources on Friday night's incident of an explosive device of some sort being thrown over the Consulate wall and going off. What I do have so far from a trusted source is that the device was a grenade, and it was thrown as a result of a fight between other elements outside the Consulate. This means the US Consulate in Nuevo Laredo was NOT the target of a grenade attack.
The Laredo Morning Times published an article on this story this morning, but it didn't contain much new information on the attack itself. What it did mention is that the FBI, the ATF, and Mexico's PGR (Attorney General's Office) are all opening an investigation on the incident. Maybe they'll find out who threw the grenade and what the exact circumstances were regarding the fight that led to it being unintentionally thrown into the compound; and maybe they'll never find out. If I hear anything more that's substantial, I'll post it here.
Have your sources mentioned what level of security was present outside the consulate at the time of the attack? I find it amazing that security would not be heavy at U.S. consulates throughout Northern Mexico based on present levels of violence including the recent deadly incident in Cd Juarez and the 2008 grenade attack at the Monterrery consulate.
here are examples of the level of instability in Nuevo Laredo at present.
https://www.osac.gov/Reports/report.cfm?contentID=114187
http://www.pro8news.com/news/local/89814277.html
http://www.pro8news.com/news/local/89656562.html
http://bordertownblues.blogspot.com/2010/02/violence.html
http://quefregados.wordpress.com/2010/02/23/the-media-briefly-reports-on-todays-violence-in-nuevo-laredo/
Posted by: Gerardo Carrillo | April 12, 2010 at 01:00 AM