U.S. ‘appalled’ at Mexico’s release of suspected killer

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A Mexican judge has released the suspected killer of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Luis Aguilar, leaving U.S. officials “shocked and appalled,” according to a statement by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.

Aguilar was killed in January in Arizona’s Yuma sector while he was trying to stop two vehicles that had entered the country illegally. One of the vehicles struck Aguilar while he was laying down a device meant to puncture the vehicle’s tires and prevent its escape back across the border. Aguilar is survived by two small children.

Chertoff has cited the border agent’s killing as a sober example of rising border violence, which he attributes to the increased desperation of smugglers and drug traffickers trying to get their goods into the U.S. from Mexico. Chertoff and other administration officials have pointed to the border violence as evidence of the need for the Merida Initiative, a joint effort to combat drug trafficking in Central America, the U.S. and Mexico.

In the past, Chertoff has praised the Mexican government’s cooperation in tracking down Aguilar’s killer. On Wednesday, he released a statement that said: “We are working with a determined Mexican Government, and our Department of Justice, to seek swift justice for the Aguilar murder. We have also assured Agent Aguilar’s family that every resource is being called upon in the relentless pursuit of justice.”

In Washington, Mexican government spokesman Ricardo Alday said, ‘The United States, to this date, has presented neither a provisional order of arrest for [the suspect] Mr. Navarro Montes nor a formal extradition request.’

--Nicole Gaouette in Washington