HONDURAS WARNS MEXICO ON DIPLOMATIC SECURITY

MEXICO CITY - Two Honduran diplomats were briefly kidnapped in Mexico
this past weekend by a presumed drug gang, prompting Honduras to warn
Mexico on Monday that it might close several consulates here if Mexico
can't provide adequate security for diplomats.

Honduras's vice consul in Mexico's Veracruz state, Joel Aguilar, was
seized along with another consular officer by gunmen as the pair
traveled in a car in the state capital on Saturday, according to a
statement by Honduras's foreign ministry.

While details of the incident remain unclear, the Honduran diplomats
were released, handcuffed, after the car being driven by their captors
crashed, the statement said.

"We have expressed our deepest concern to the Mexican government about
this incident," the Honduran government's statement said, adding that
Honduras had temporarily shut the consulate in Veracruz.

Mexico's national security spokesman Alejandro Poire said Mexican
authorities are investigating the incident, but had no further
information.

The car itself belonged to the consul, Raul Morazan, raising suspicion
that he may have been the intended target, according to
foreign-ministry spokeswoman Leonila Madrid.

The incident comes just weeks after the massacre of 72 undocumented
migrants-many from Honduras-by a Mexican drug gang. The killings
strained relations between Mexico and its Central American neighbors.

Many illegal immigrants from Central America sneak into Mexico on
their way to the U.S. Human-rights groups say the most treacherous
part of the journey is crossing Mexico, where the migrants are
routinely asked for money by corrupt police or kidnapped by drug
gangs. Veracruz sits along the route that many migrants take.

Honduras's government has asked Mexico to provide security personnel
for all its diplomats here, the statement said. If Honduras wasn't
satisfied with the security conditions, it said, it might close its
consulates in Tapachula, in Chiapas state, just across the border from
Guatemala; and in San Luis PotosI, in central Mexico, the statement
added.

Nearly 30,000 people have been killed in Mexico by drug-related
violence since President Felipe Calderon took office in December 2006
and sent Mexican federal police and army troops to take on rampaging
drug gangs.

The violence has affected other diplomatic communities here. A
pregnant employee of the U.S. consulate in Ciudad Juarez was gunned
down earlier this year, and the American consulate in Monterrey no
longer allows diplomats to be posted there with children under 18.