CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico — Mexican officials said Wednesday that they were looking into taking action against FBI agents who crossed the border without federal permission — a serious move in a nation touchy about interference from its northern neighbor, the Associated Press reports.
FBI officials were investigating the beating of two of their agents last week by a dozen Mexican railroad bandits near the border between Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, and Sunland Park, New Mexico, just across the Texas line. The agents were hospitalized with head injuries after being hit repeatedly by sticks, rocks and pipes.
FBI spokesman Al Cruz said U.S. investigators were accompanied by Mexican municipal police from Ciudad Juarez, a city of 1.3 million across from El Paso, Texas.
“All we did was go right over the fence there because we saw some pipes. We gathered them and came back,” Cruz said.
But authorities at Mexico’s Federal Attorney General’s office in Ciudad Juarez told The Associated Press they are looking into the matter to see whether to take action.
The chief federal agent in Ciudad Juarez, Lorenzo Aquino, met with U.S. officials at the Mexican consulate in El Paso on Wednesday.
Aquino told the Ciudad Juarez newspaper, El Diario, that the move was a “violation of the constitution and we’re going to intervene.”
Aquino could not be reached directly for comment.
Jose Guadalupe Leon of the National Human Rights Network told El Diario that “it makes you sad that national sovereignty is being lost.”
FBI agents arrested at least 16 people on the U.S. side after the attack and charged them with train robbery and assault.
The beaten agents were investigating thefts of interstate shipments from the railroads, which have cost the railroads more than dlrs 1 million a year, Cruz said.
The FBI said the suspects jumped onto the train where it had to slow down for a sharp bend in the tracks. Tipped to a possible theft, agents confronted the alleged bandits, and 10 to 12 of them attacked agents Sergio Barrio, 39, and Samantha Mikeska, 38, the bureau said.
Mikeska has been released from the hospital but may need additional surgery. Barrio suffered a skull fracture and will require physical therapy.
Gangs from Mexico have been robbing trains in the area for years, and law enforcement agencies regularly conduct sting operations.