WIKILEAKS DOCUMENT: U.S. OFFICIALS IN MEXICO CONCERNED CARTELS WOULD
ATTACK THEM

U.S. diplomats in Mexico were concerned that drug cartels might attack
U.S. personnel and institutions, according to a leaked government
document provided by Wikileaks.

"We do know from sources that cartel members have at least
contemplated the possibility of doing harm to our personnel and
institutions, but we don't know enough about how DTO (drug-trafficking
organizations) think and operate to know what factors might trigger a
decision to mount such an attack, but the potential threat is very
real," states a U.S. cable titled "The Battle Joined: Narco Violence
Trends in 2008."

"We assess that the threat to U.S. personnel could increase if the
violence continues to escalate and more (Mexican) high-level
government officials and political leaders are targeted. Also, a
reaction may be triggered if traffickers perceive their losses are due
to U.S. support to the GOM's (government of Mexico's) counter-
narcotics efforts."

The document also states that since 2007 drug cartels had killed 61
Mexican assets who had worked with the DEA and FBI.

"More than 60 of Mexico's best law enforcement officers in whom we
have placed our trust and with whom we have collaborated on sensitive
investigations, shared intelligence, and in many cases trained and
vetted have been murdered by the cartels," according to the document.

In March, Mexican gang members affiliated with a drug cartel shot and
killed three people with ties to the U.S. Consulate in Juarez, but FBI
and State Department officials have denied the victims were targeted
because of their jobs.

The victims included Lesley Enriquez Redelfs, a consulate employee;
Arthur Redelfs, her husband and an El Paso County Jail detention
officer; and Jorge Alberto Salcido Ceniceros, husband of another U.S.
consulate employee.

Several suspects were arrested in Juarez in connection with the
shooting attack, and officials said more arrests are possible.

The U.S. consulate in Monterrey, Mexico, came under attack with
gunshots and a tossed grenade that did not explode in 2008, but U.S.
officials said they did not have enough information to determine
whether drug-traffickers had ordered the attack, the leaked document
states.

Last year, Mexican officials announced the arrest of an alleged drug
cartel member in connection with the Monterrey attack.

About 30,000 people have been killed in Mexico since President Felipe
Calderon began a crackdown against the drug cartels in December 2006.
So far this year, Juarez alone has reported about 2,700 deaths, most
of which Mexican authorities attribute to the drug cartel wars.

On Sunday, armed assailants killed and injured about a dozen people in
separate attacks at two different drug-rehabilitation centers in
Juarez. Police were investigating.

WikiLeaks is an online whistleblowing site that obtained more than
250,000 leaked U.S. diplomatic documents from unidentified sources.
The State Department has condemned WikiLeaks' release of the
documents.