MEXICAN GOVERNOR PINS KILLING ON CARTELS

MEXICO CITY-Drug-cartel gunmen were responsible for the shooting of
two U.S. government law-enforcement agents, the governor of the
Mexican state where the men were attacked said Wednesday.

What is still unclear, however, is why the men were
attacked.

Jaime Zapata, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agent, was killed
Tuesday while driving along a rural Mexican highway with another ICE
agent, who was wounded. The second agent, who hasn't been identified,
was shot twice in the leg and has been taken back to the U.S. where he
is in stable condition, American officials said.

"There was a confrontation, where organized crime....made an attempt
on the lives of U.S. officials on a federal highway," said Fernando
Toranzo, governor of San Luis Potosi state, during an interview with
Mexican radio.

The U.S. government said it created a joint task force including the
Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice, led by
the Federal Bureau of Investigation, to help Mexico investigate the
killings.

"This joint task force reflects our commitment to bring the
investigatory and prosecutorial power of the U.S. government to bear
as we work with the Mexican government to bring these criminals to
justice," Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said.

President Barack Obama called the slain officer's parents to express
his condolences, telling them their son served his country admirably.

Mr. Zapata, the slain agent, joined ICE in 2006 and had been assigned
to the Laredo, Texas, office working on border security and
human-smuggling issues before being assigned to Mexico City, the
agency said. There are about 30 ICE agents assigned to Mexico, working
in areas ranging from human smuggling to money laundering.

It is unclear whether the attack was a case of mistaken identity or a
deliberate attempt against U.S. law enforcement-a possibility that
would create a major security headache for U.S. personnel in Mexico
and mark a worrisome development in Mexico's war on organized crime.

"If it was a deliberate attack, then it's a new precedent," said
Victor Cerda, an attorney with Jackson Lewis LLP in Washington and a
former senior ICE official.

Normally, Mexican drug gangs steer clear of U.S. officials. The last
U.S. law-enforcement agent killed in the line of duty in Mexico was
Enrique "Kiki" Camarena, who was kidnapped, tortured and murdered in
1985 by drug traffickers.

Mr. Camarena's death led the U.S. to temporarily close the Mexican
border and to put so much pressure on Mexico's government that it
ended years of cozy relations with drug traffickers and jailed several
leading kingpins involved in the murder.

Since then, Mexican cartels have generally steered clear of
deliberately harming U.S. law-enforcement officials. In 1999, an FBI
agent and a DEA agent accidentally had a run-in with Osiel Cardenas,
then head of the Gulf Cartel in the city of Matamoros, across the Rio
Grande river from Brownsville, Texas. Although Mr. Cardenas threatened
them, the agents managed to talk their way out of danger. Mr. Cardenas
was captured in 2003 and extradited to the U.S. in 2007. He was
convicted and is now serving a prison sentence.

Tuesday's attack on the two ICE agents is likely to further ratchet up
U.S. attention on the drug violence that has engulfed Mexico, where
more than 34,000 people have died in four years of violence.

In Mexico, suspicion for the attack immediately fell on the Zetas, a
notoriously bloody cartel that is fighting former ally the Gulf Cartel
for control of much of northeastern Mexico, including San Luis Potosi.
The Zetas are known for setting up roadblocks on highways to ambush
and kill their rivals.

There were conflicting reports about the attack itself. The agents,
according to ICE, were returning to Mexico City after meeting other
U.S. officials in San Luis Potosi. A person close to the Department of
Homeland Security said the men had been shot after they stopped at a
fake military-style highway checkpoint manned by cartel gunmen.

But Mexican officials say there is no indication that the shooting
involved a false checkpoint. Other people familiar with the case also
deny the checkpoint story.

"There were several cars pursuing the car in which the ICE agents were
driving," says George Grayson, an expert on Mexico and drug
trafficking at the College of William and Mary. "There was no
checkpoint." Mr. Grayson said his information came from an
"impeccable" U.S. government source. He said he believed the attack
will provoke a vigorous U.S. response.

There were also questions about why the agents were driving in rural
Mexico instead of flying. As a result of the shooting, Homeland
Security officials are discussing suspending some planned personnel
trips to Mexico, according to an official with knowledge of the situation.

A spokesman from the Department of Homeland Security declined to
comment.

Miriam Jordan and Tamara Audi in Los Angeles contributed to this
article.