Does the U.S. government have an
obligation to extradite a U.S. Border Patrol agent charged with murder on Mexican
territory? According to Jose Contreras of México'sLa
Chronica De Hoy, the answer seems in question,
after a U.S. Border Guard is alleged to have shot, at "point-blank-range,"
a Mexican teen on Mexican territory.
This Friday at dawn, the
voices of lawmakers, social activists and other sectors of society will have joined
with all other voices demanding that the U.S. Border Patrol agent who murdered a
Mexican teenager on our own territory be extradited and judged here [video of shooting incident below].
But the deafening noise of
the hullabaloo at Soccer City Stadium, where opening match of the 2010 FIFA
World Cup will take place, won't allow either President Felipe Calderon or
Foreign Secretary Patricia Espinoza to hear these voices crying out for
justice.
According to a report from
the Chihuahua medical examiner, the 15-year-old boy, Sergio Adrian Hernandez
Guereca, was shot “at close range” with a 40-caliber firearm.
There are several witnesses
who agree that the U.S. Border Patrol agent walked about 20 meters [66 feet] across
the border into Mexican territory and fired the teen at point-blank-range.
The Foreign Ministry response
to this aggression has been weak and submissive, and has so far not gone beyond
sending a diplomatic note demanding an "immediate investigation."
Posted
by WORLDMEETS.US
The Chancellery's
response to the assassination of the young Sergio Adrian has been the type of pro-forma
protocol it has also resorted to in cases of minor violations of much lesser
importance.
The foreign secretary
shouldn't be asking the U.S. government to conduct an investigation, since the
crime was committed on Mexican territory, which, due our government's submission, is about to become not the U.S.' backyard - but its basement.
Because the murder occurred
within the federal zone, the Attorney General's Office will conduct an
investigation into the murder of Sergio Adrian Hernandez.
By following normal procedure
in any preliminary investigation, the Attorney General's Office must conclude
with the identification of the alleged perpetrator and the issuance of an
arrest warrant to a judge.
If the alleged perpetrator is
in another country, the attorney general's office must then issue an extradition
request through the Foreign Ministry.
The Attorney General's office
has no choice. It is obligated to conclude a preliminary investigation once it
receives the analysis of the Chihuahua attorney general - and the Code of Federal
Criminal Procedure obligates that office to seek extradition of the alleged suspect
from the other country.
[Editor's Note: The footage below would appear to contradict statements made by the U.S. Border Agent who killed Sergio Adrian Hernandez Guereca. The agent claims he was attacked after being surrounded by rock-throwing undocumented immigrants.]
The demand that the border
guard who killed Sergio Adrian be extradited is not the product of enhanced
patriotic fervor over the World Cup or that this is the year of the centenary
[the Mexican Revolution
took place in 1910]. The demand is born of the need to get the Mexican State to
pursue justice after the murder at point-blank-range of a fellow citizen on our
territory.
Posted
by WORLDMEETS.US
In March of this year, when three U.S. citizens connected
to the U.S. Consulate were murdered in Ciudad Juarez, the U.S. government reacted
aggressively with statements that spoke of “hunting” the murders and of
“returning to the rule of law” to Mexico. They then sent dozens of agents from
seven police departments to our territory to investigate the murder of their countrymen.
It would be too much to ask the
Mexican government to act in the same way, but we can at least demand that
based on our laws and the Mexico-United States Extradition Treaty, the
extradition of the agent who killed the young Sergio Adrian, the identity of
whom we do not even know.
