Danger signs apparent before Mexico attacks

CIUDAD JUÁREZ, Mexico — The danger signs had been mounting. The U.S. Consulate in Ciudad Juárez recently shut down for a bomb threat (which proved false). Federal police guards were redoubled. Officials working at the diplomatic mission saw their movements being gradually restricted, some parts of the city deemed too dicey to frequent.

But the Americans leaving a weekend child's birthday party probably made the same calculations that many people living in Mexico make. It was broad daylight. We'll be traveling on major roads. It is probably safe.

Lesley Enriquez, a U.S. consular official who was four months pregnant, and her husband, Arthur Redelfs, an American who works as a jail guard in El Paso, Texas, were driving home to El Paso, just across the border, when suspected drug gangs intercepted their car and shot them to death Saturday afternoon.

Their baby daughter, dressed in pink and crying in the back seat, survived unharmed.

At almost the same time, in a separate but similar car leaving the same party, Jorge Alberto Salcido was also shot to death. Two children with him were injured. Salcido was a Mexican citizen married to a Mexican who works at the consulate.

Mexican authorities said Monday they had located a burned SUV that the alleged drug cartel hit men allegedly used to pursue Enriquez and Redelfs. The vehicle may be the same one used in the slaying of Salcido.

The attorney general's office for the Mexican state of Chihuahua is blaming the killings on a criminal group known as La Linea — The Line. La Linea includes gang members from Juárez and El Paso known as Los Aztecas. Together they serve as enforcers of the Juárez cartel.

The burned SUV was found near the U.S. Consulate office, which remained under heavy guard. The office was closed Monday for a national Mexican holiday and will remain closed Tuesday as U.S. authorities review security for employees.

Enriquez's job involved aiding U.S. citizens, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said. It was not immediately clear what kind of job Salcido's wife held.

Consulate spokesman Silvio Gonzalez said the party Saturday was thrown by the U.S. diplomatic mission in Ciudad Juárez. Were it not for that connection, the attacks would hardly have been remarkable in a city where 2,601 people were killed last year.

Ciudad Juárez Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz speculated that the gunmen could have targeted one family Saturday and followed the other because it was in a similar car.

"One thing that could be significant is that the two SUVs were similar," he said. "The same type of vehicle, the same color, leaving the same party."

The mayor said Salcido may have worked previously as a police officer, but prosecutors said they could not confirm that. Police have been targeted in the drug violence that has made Ciudad Juárez one of the deadliest cities in the world.

After the slayings, the U.S. Embassy warned Americans to "delay unnecessary travel to parts of Durango, Coahuila and Chihuahua states."

The attacks came during a particularly bloody weekend in Mexico, with nearly 50 people killed in apparent gang violence. Nine people were killed in a gang shootout early Sunday in Acapulco.

If traffickers deliberately attacked U.S. diplomatic personnel, it would mark a significant departure in their tactics. But such a move would be risky for traffickers if the killings spur the Obama administration into tougher actions against the drug trade, in support of Mexican President Felipe Calderón's military-led offensive.

State Department officials said they were not aware of specific threats against any consular employees.

But the signs of trouble were apparent, here and elsewhere along Mexico's northern border with the United States. In Reynosa, in neighboring Tamaulipas state, the U.S. Consulate was closed earlier this month because of raging gunbattles, and travel advisories were issued against driving on interstate highways because of the violence. The consulate in Monterrey has come under grenade attack.

The consulate in Ciudad Juárez will remain closed Tuesday, U.S. officials said, in a gesture of mourning and for the security review.

Violence involving rival drug gangs has become so severe that the State Department recently authorized U.S. personnel in six consulates in northern Mexico — including Juárez — to send their family members out of the area until April 12.

That decision was made because of growing concern among U.S. employees and security officers that violence was making the area dangerous.

Compiled from Los Angeles Times, The Associated Press and Dallas Morning News reports