Fox Shrugs Off Closing Of U.S. Consulate In Nuevo Laredo

President Vicente Fox does not agree with and will not feel pressured by the U.S. decision to temporarily shut down its consulate in Nuevo Laredo given a wave of killings and drug-related mayhem gripping the border city, a top aide said today. Presidential spokesman Ruben Aguilar reiterated Mexico's branding of the weeklong closing of the consulate "extreme and not corresponding to reality." "While respecting the decision, the government of Mexico does not agree with it," Aguilar said at his daily briefing, adding that the U.S. decision does not change the stakes in the battle to restore order in Nuevo Laredo. "The presidency does not feel pressured," he said. More than 100 people have been killed in the city across from Laredo, Texas, since January, including 15 police officers. Authorities have blamed the violence on a fight between Mexico's two most powerful drug gangs to control smuggling routes into U.S. territory. On Monday, Fabian Medina, newly appointed spokesman for Attorney General Daniel Cabeza de Vaca, also criticized closing the consulate, saying such actions should only be taken "by countries in a situation of war or when violence is generalized or because of terrorist attacks." U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Tony Garza last week ordered the Nuevo Laredo consulate to suspend all activities except for emergency services for American citizens for a week that began Monday. In a statement, Garza made reference to "continued violence along the border" and an "alarming incident" late Thursday in which a group of men arriving in several vehicles fired machine guns, grenades and a rocket launcher at a home neighbors say was a safe house for drug smugglers in southern Nuevo Laredo. Aguilar said that during a regularly scheduled Cabinet meeting on security Monday, officials decided to "radicalize and deepen" a program which has seen federal agents and soldiers take on a larger role in stopping drug smuggling and violence in Nuevo Laredo, as well as other parts of the country. He said Public Safety Secretary Ramon Martin Huerta would announce details on stepping up the plan in coming weeks, but added that the new steps would not constitute a "militarization" of the country, nor include government-mandated curfews in especially dangerous areas. Nuevo Laredo is not the only place in Mexico that has seen extreme violence recently. During an attack on bettors in the western state of Jalisco before dawn Monday, two assailants lobbed grenades into a crowded cockfighting ring, killing four people and wounding 25 others. Federal prosecutors are investigating that case, and say drug smugglers may have been involved. Efrain Limon, 29, Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. Limon has used heroin and crack for 13 years. The violence occurring in border towns and elsewhere in Mexico is not only because of the fight over drug trafficking routes, but also for sales to addicts like Limon.