Image by dherrera_96 via FlickrSome forty minutes ago, AP identified the victims as a consular employee and her husband who were shot to death in their car near the Santa Fe International bridge linking Ciudad Juarez to El Paso. The AP source is the husband's stepfather. The couple’s 1-year-old baby was reportedly found unharmed in the back seat.
You can read the AP update on this here. Our thoughts and prayers go to the families of the victims and the consulate family in CJ. We will not post the names here until they are officially identified by the State Department.
On a related note, we noticed that there are18 posts in Mexico but only Reynosa (which is a Consular Agency, an extension of the Consulate in Matamoros) has a 15% danger pay. All other posts in Mexico have the following footnote under the “Danger Pay” column. I don’t understand this footnote or why it talks about Bolivia; if this is a longer footnote, the item for Mexico is not showing up:
In accordance with Section 151 of PL 101-246, danger pay is authorized for DEA employees while at the locations listed below. The authorized post differential for each location is revised by the removal of credit for political violence for those employees receiving danger pay. Bolivia 15% Danger Pay effective 3/15/95. Revised Differential for Bolivia is: Cochabamba 5% effective 3/15/95; La Paz 10% effective 11/26/95; Santa Cruz 10% effective 3/15/95; Other, Bolivia effective 3/15/95.
Updated @ 12:13 am
The NYT has more here including a description of the attack and the names of the victims. “The Ciudad Juárez shootings took place within minutes of each other about 2:30 p.m. on Saturday. The victims had left a social gathering at another consulate worker’s home when they were attacked, officials said.”
The original report mentioned a spouse of a Mexican employee of the Consulate. The NYT is reporting that the deceased is a Mexican national married to an American government employee; two children were also injured in that attack.
3 comments:
From what I understand, DEA agents receive danger pay due to the work they are carrying out - they were being directly targeted, while DOS employees were not.
This may change in the near future (I haven't been able to access the Allowances website).
CJ is 20% danger pay, I believe, and Monterrey just got bumped up from 0% to 15% just this week.
The woman who died, we hear, was also pregnant...
Such a tragedy!
@FSH - Thanks for the comments. I was able to access the allowances website last night prior to posting this but not since then.
@Bryn - you are the second person to tell me that the employee was also pregnant. This is madness!
BTW, if the danger pay was bumped up last week, it was not yet reflected in the website for allowances. I checked before I posted this piece last night (late pm EST) and only Reynosa was listed with danger pay. Thanks for the additional info.
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