The Mexican daily La Jornada reported on Aug. 28 that the two US agents wounded in a shooting incident near Tres Marías in Morelos on Aug. 24 were from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), not the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Citing unidentified "official sources close to the investigation," the newspaper also said the attack was carried out by five vehicles, not four, and that the shooting began after the assailants were able to see the victims close up. The agents were driving a heavily armored US embassy car, a Toyota Land Cruiser, on their way to a Navy training facility, apparently to provide instruction to marines involved in the "war on drugs." According to later reports, the US agents survived only because of the car's armor.

While the first reports said only federal police agents were implicated in the attack, there are indications that members of a criminal organization were directly involved. The official sources cited 18 attackers in civilian clothes, but only 12 federal police agents have been detained so far. (LJ, Aug. 28; LJ, Aug. 29)

From Weekly News Update on the Americas, Sept. 2.