American family attacked in Mexico, 13 year old citizen killed.

File photo of a Mexican highway. The Guardian/Reuters.

A 13 year old American citizen was killed in an attack in Mexico with three of her family members wounded. The Guardian. The family was driving on a two lane highway that parallels the Texas border in two vehicles. The family was driven off the road by an SUV, the occupants opened fire. The 13 year old girl was killed while her two parents, who are legal permanent residents of America, were injured. Her 10 year old brother, also a US citizen, was injured as well.  The Northeast Cartel, which spun off from Los Zetas, is suspected to be responsible for the attack. 

My Comment:

Another American citizen dead in Mexico's drug war. This attack is similar to the one that killed 9 American citizens last year. In both cases a group of people were driving through an area controlled by the cartels and were ambushed by gunmen. In this case only one person died, but it wasn't from lack of trying from the cartels. 

The victims in this case are probably different as well. Though the two children are American citizens the parents were not and were only resident aliens. My guess is that the two children are "anchor babies". The victims in last years slaughter were duel citizens that were living in Mexico, and were generally more sympathetic as anchor babies are politically unpopular to say the least.  

This might explain why the other case caused so much outrage while this one isn't making much of an impact at all. Though the kids might have been citizens, they were also Mexican and Mexicans killing each other isn't much of a news story, unfortunately. 

It also might help explain why this family was attacked. If the victims were ethnically Mexican than the Cartel may have targeted them for multiple reasons. It's likely that it was a case of mistaken identity but it's also possible that it was a random intimidation attack. It's also possible that the family was involved in something shady but there isn't much in the way of evidence either way. 

Still, this shows how bad Mexico is getting. A family can't even drive down the highway without getting ambushed and killed. Mexico is a warzone and lots of civilians are getting killed. It's a massively dangerous place and one of the most violent places in the world. 

I do wonder if this will help the argument that the Cartels should be declared a terror organization. President Trump was thinking about doing so in the wake of the last attack. That was put on the backburner due to impeachment and now Iran but this latest attack might change things...