The United States authorized on Wednesday the departure of families of Americans and part of the staff of its consulate from the Mexican border city of Nuevo Laredo, in the state of Tamaulipas.
The The move came after drug cartel gunmen fired on the US consulate building in Nuevo Laredo, across the border from Laredo, Texas, overnight Sunday, in an upsurge in violence in Mexico.
“The Department of State authorized the departure of non-emergency United States government personnel and eligible family members from the United States Consulate General in Nuevo Laredo due to security conditions,” said a statement from the department.
“As of 15 March, the Department of State is unable to offer routine consular services from the United States Consulate General in New York. vo Laredo”, continues the statement. “U.S. citizens who wish to leave Nuevo Laredo should be aware of local news and announcements and only do so when it is considered safe during the day.”
The State Department also advised US citizens not to travel to Tamaulipas, the state where Nuevo Laredo is located, citing crime and security concerns.
The shootings on Sunday night and early Monday occurred in retaliation for the arrest of drug gang leader Juan Gerardo Treviño, also known as “El Huevo”. The US authorities describe him as the founder and leader of the Northeast Cartel, successor to the former Los Zetas Cartel.2021
The Department of Justice reported on Wednesday that an indictment unsealed against Treviño charges him with 11 charges of conspiracy to drug trafficking and other charges that could send him to prison for life. The department called Treviño the cartel’s “drug trafficker, executioner, weapons pimp, and plaza leader.” non-Mexican and was deported on Tuesday, according to CBS News.
If Treviño had Mexican citizenship, he would have been subject to a lengthy extradition process, but Mejía said that Treviño had no Mexican identity documents or proof of them.
Copies of Mexican birth and baptismal certificates and the equivalent of a social security card in Treviño’s name circulated on social media Wednesday, suggesting he had Mexican citizenship. But the authenticity of those documents could not be verified. Searches of government websites using data from the documents returned a response of “incorrect information”.
Following his arrest on Sunday, members of Treviño’s gang carried out shootings and vehicle fires in the border city of Nuevo Laredo and shots were fired at the US consulate. The consulate was closed until further notice and two US border bridges leading to Laredo, Texas were briefly closed due to the incident.
Juan Gerardo Treviño Chávez, alias “El Huevo” is the nephew of the former feared boss of Los Zetas, Miguel Treviño Morales , better known as “Z40”. After the arrests of Z40 in 2013 and his brother Alejandro, alias “Omar” or “Z42”, in 2015, the Zetas suffered significant fragmentation . Since then, the Northeast Cartel has become its most formidable heir, especially in the northern border states of Coahuila and Tamaulipas, according to Insight Crime.
The United States Department of State had offered a $5 million dollar reward for Miguel Treviño Morales, the “Z15”, before he was captured in 2013.
The Cartel del Noreste has participated in some of the bloodiest and most tenacious turf battles in Mexico, attacking both Mexican police personnel and the rival Gulf Cartel.
Treviño, who allegedly had two illegal weapons when he was arrested, also faces charges of extortion, homicide and terrorism in Mexico.
You can interest:
– Video: The Treviño Egg, leader of the Northeast Cartel, is deported to the United States
– The US raises alert in Tamaulipas and closes the consulate in Nuevo Laredo due to violence
– Video: “The border is going to burn”, drug trafficker threatens, after the capture of the Treviño Egg