Politics

Mexico Threatens With Legal Action Against The U.S. For El Paso Shooting

This Sunday, Mexico’s government threatened to take legal action in response to the El Paso, Texas shooting this weekend. Six Mexicans were killed and seven wounded in the Walmart mass shooting that left a total of 20 people dead and 26 wounded.

“We consider this an act of terrorism against the community of Mexico,” said Mexico’s Secretary of Foreign Affairs Marcelo Ebrard during a press conference. If Mexico’s prosecutor takes the step of officially designating the crime an act of terrorism, it would “permit Mexico access to all the information related to the case,” and “let us evaluate whether there are other individuals involved or potentially involved” that could yet threaten the safety of Mexicans, said Ebrard.

An extradition request is also possible in order to bring the suspect to trial in the Mexican justice system, he indicated. “The Attorney General will evaluate requesting, if necessary elements are there, the extradition of the author or the authors of this action.”

The weapon used in the shooting is a concern and the Secretary indicated the U.S. will be asked to provide information on how the gun was obtained by the attacker, Patrick Crusius.

“We consider the issue of arms to be crucial,” said Ebrard.

In a video from earlier posted online and translated by the New York Daily News, Ebrard said: “Mexico declares its profound rejection and complete condemnation of this barbaric act, in which innocent Mexican men and women lost their lives.”

Although many liberal U.S. politicians have been eager to try to blame President Donald Trump’s illegal immigration stance for the violence, Ebrard did not go there.

Progressive Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador also didn’t engage in any finger-pointing. Recently a great deal of progress has been made between the two countries to cooperate in the effort to stop immigrants from moving through Mexico to the southern U.S. border.

U.S. investigators are looking at a manifesto posted online they believe Crusius wrote that would provide evidence so the shootings can be classified as a hate crime. Crusius has already been charged with capital murder and faces the possibility of a death sentence in Texas.

Many officials in the U.S. have called the El Paso carnage “white terrorism,” including Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush and former U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein.

In a tweet posted on Saturday evening, Bush said, “There have now been multiple attacks from self-declared white terrorists here in the US in the last several months. This is a real and present threat that we must all denounce and defeat.”

Rosenstein, who resigned his post as Deputy Attorney General effective May 11, endorsed Bush’s “white terrorism label” with a post of his own, saying: “George is right. Killing random civilians to spread a political message is terrorism. FBI classifies it as domestic terrorism, but “white terrorism” is more precise. Many of the killers are lone-wolf losers indoctrinated to hate through the internet, just like Islamic terrorists.”

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