Our man in Tres Marias?
The incident last Friday, in which an armored Toyota SUV with diplomatic plates was fired on by Federal Police, wounding two U.S. “diplomatic personnel” and slightly injuring a Mexican marine officer, is still under investigation. Despite the apparent attempts to simply blame the nearest suspect (the Federal Police), I tend to believe that they were indeed trying to stop a fleeing kidnapping suspect.
I certainly don’t tend to always believe the police (quite the opposite, living in Mexico) but the undue haste to arrest the officers in what appears to be a communications failure, and a type of incident that has happened to non-diplomatic types in unarmored cars that look a lot less than gangster-mobiles that that SUV did, have been killed in the past.
While I’m not all that surprised that a diplomatic car… or any other car… was on that particular stretch of that particular highway, which is, after all, the main route to Cuernavaca, I am dubious about the nature of a trip in which presumed DEA agents were travelling with diplomatic plates to what appears to have been a semi-clandestine meeting… that is, it certainly looks like neither the Federal Police, nor the Army (which the Mexican naval escort called for backup) knew anything about the travel plans.
And… while we’re at it. I can’t vouch for this photo, said to have been taken at the scene, but who is the guy in civilian clothing wearing a mask and a Mexican marine helmet, and carrying a pistol?
The Mex Files 
Why are we assuming he is American?
I didn’t say he was, but there is a lot of speculation out there that he is. BTW, there’s a lot of reports in this morning’s media — said to be based on good sources — saying the two “diplomatic” people were CIA.
Yeah that seems logical to me, given that no one else is claiming them.
Correction. That two lane highway is NOT the main route to Cuernavaca. That road is called “carretera vieja” (old highway). The main route will be the 4 lane toll highway which is the main artery between Mexico city and Cuernavaca. Tres Marias is where you could switch between those highways. That’s probably what the driver in the diplomatic car was attempting to do.
The carretera vieja has always been more risky to travel on, since it has a lot of sharp turns, has intersections and speed bumps, all too convenient for robbers/kidnappers to catch an incoming car when its slowing down.
The toll highway is fast, has more highway patrol presence and offers emergency services by phones every few kms. If you plan to go to Cuernavaca you take the toll highway.
Ah, of course…From what’s in this AM’s news I can just about place the the site in my head, even though it’s been several years since I took that highway. More and more, it looks like what happened is exactly what the police said happened.