From the AP:
APNewsBreak: Perry seeks Calderon help in probe
By APRIL CASTRO – 6 hours ago
AUSTIN, Texas — Texas Gov. Rick Perry said Wednesday he has asked Mexico's president to call him in the next 48 hours to discuss the search efforts for the body of an American reportedly shot to death on a border lake.
Perry said he hopes the body has been retrieved by the time he gets the call.
"If not, we're not looking hard enough," he told The Associated Press.
Tiffany Hartley, of Colorado, says her husband, David, was shot by Mexican pirates on Falcon Lake last week as they were returning to the United States on Jet Skis. Falcon Lake is a dammed section of the Rio Grande that has been plagued by pirates who rob boaters and fisherman who wander into Mexican waters. Hartley's death would be the first killing on the lake.
The Mexican Foreign Relations Ministry responded Wednesday with a statement that noted Mexico's "condemnation of any act that endangers the lives of innocent citizens," saying that the country "is committed to the investigation of those acts."
The statement said Mexico has "from the first moment" been in contact with the U.S. to coordinate the search and recovery of Hartley's body, and noted that Mexican authorities have "stepped up their actions with the support of specialized personnel, boats and helicopters."
The Hartley family has complained that Mexican authorities are not doing enough to find David Hartley's body. Tiffany Hartley has said that her husband was shot in the head by three men chasing them in speedboats and that he fell off his Jet Ski and into the lake. His body has not been recovered.
Perry said Mexico needs to use every resource available to find the body and have it returned to U.S. soil. He said Mexican Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Julian Ventura had been accommodating during talks Tuesday.
The statement from Mexico City ran counter to comments by state officials in Tamaulipas, who cast doubt on Tiffany Hartley's story in interviews with the McAllen Monitor.
The district attorney there, Marco Antonio Guerrero Carrixales, also told the paper that authorities "are not certain that incident happened the way that they are telling us."
Perry said the couple was sightseeing in Mexico.
"I find it really reprehensible for anyone, U.S. or Mexican, to speak otherwise," he said.
Perry also used the incident to renew his demand that the federal government do more to secure the U.S.-Mexico border as northern Mexico sinks deeper into drug-gang violence. The violence has spread in the last few months from Ciudad Juarez, the epicenter of Mexico's drug war across from El Paso, Texas, to the Mexican side of the Rio Grande Valley, including Tamaulipas state where Hartley reportedly disappeared. Two drug gangs, the Gulf Cartel and the Zetas, are battling for supremacy there and fighting the Mexican military.
"Frankly, these two presidents (Calderon and President Barack Obama) need to get together with their secretaries of state and say, 'What are we going to do about this?'"
U.S. authorities are unable to investigate Hartley's disappearance because it happened in Mexico.
Pam Hartley, David's mother, said family members would be at the lake Wednesday to monitor the search.
"I think the ball is going. Again, how fast, I don't know. We're going to check for ourselves," she said.
She also said she hopes their presence at the lake will help the family heal.
"As part of our closure, it's something we need to do," she said.
Democrat Bill White, who is challenging Perry's re-election bid, said responding to an incident after the fact is not enough, and that the governor needs to speak to sheriffs and law enforcement who work along the border to learn and respond to their needs. He said the area needs more sheriffs deputies and more assistance from state troopers.
Perry also said he spoke Tuesday to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano's chief of staff and once again made his request for an additional 1,000 National Guard troops on the Texas-Mexico border, a request that has been repeatedly denied.
Also Wednesday, officials said a South Texas college student was shot and killed in Mexico. Officials were trying to get more information, but it was not yet known if the death of Jonathan William Torres, 19, was connected to the ongoing drug war violence in Mexico. Torres, a freshman at the University of Texas at Brownsville, was killed in Matamoros, across the border from Brownsville, according to the Brownsville Herald.
"How many more American citizens have to die?" Perry said.
Associated Press writers Katherine Corcoran in Mexico City, Ramit Plushnick-Masti in Houston and Ivan Moreno in Denver contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
And, related, from Notitas de Noticias:
UPDATE: Texas Governor Perry Asks for Help from Mexican President to Locate Missing Boater0 Comments
.Published at 1:21 pm, October 6, 2010Print Page. UPDATE: Texas Governor Rick Perry is intervening on behalf of Tiffany Young-Hartley and her family asking for help from Mexico’s President Felipe Calderon. Governor Perry wants a guarantee that the Tamaulipas State police will continue to search for the missing body of Hartley’s husband, Michael Harltey, that went missing after being allegedly shot to death by Mexican pirates. Specifically Perry is asking the President call him and hopes that he will call “within the next 48 hours” and feels that if the body hasn’t been retrieved its because “they aren’t looking hard enough.”
UPDATE: Mexican investigators are questioning whether a U.S. citizen was shot and left for dead as his wife is claiming to authorities. The Tamaulipas State police launched an investigation after an American citizen, Tiffany Young-Hartley claimed her husband Michael Hartley was shot on Mexican waters and left for dead after they were attacked by Mexican pirates. The couple had left Texas and traveled to Mexico for sightseeing on their boat when they were attacked. U.S. authorities believe Mr. Hartley to be dead.
Mexican police are stating they have found no evidence pointing toward a shooting or any trace of Hartley’s remains. The police are searching where they were told by the U.S. consulate the body might be and are also conducting a land search. “We are blind with a stock trying to find him,” said Mexican Police Commander Rolando Armando Flores Villegas. The investigation must be led and conducted by Mexican authorities because the alleged crime occurred on the Mexican side of Falcon Lake.
ORIGINAL: An American tourist and his wife were returning from sightseeing on their watercraft was shot as they were leaving Mexican waters into U.S. waters on Falcon Lake. Falcon Lake is 60 miles from U.S. border city Laredo, Texas and is popular for water sports and fishing.
Texas Sheriffs are reporting a woman and her husband were on international waters when six gunmen in two boats approached their boat, they started to flee to the U.S. side when the gunmen shot at them. It is reported the husband was shot in the back of the head. Texas locals had been warned about robberies at gunpoint occurring on the lake by Mexican pirates looking for cash and valuables.
The Mexican consulate has been asked to investigate and the couple remains unidentified.
And, related, from FOX News:
Texas Governor Pressures Mexican President to Find American "Victim" in Alleged Pirate Attack
Published October 06, 2010
FoxNews.com
David Michael Hartley, 30, of Colorado, was gunned down in Mexican waters on Thursday while his wife, Tiffany, dodged bullets and raced her Jet Ski back to American soil.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry said Wednesday he has asked Mexico's president to call him in the next 48 hours to say that the body of an American reportedly shot to death on a border lake has been recovered.
Tiffany Hartley of Milliken, Colo., says her husband, David, was shot by Mexican pirates on Falcon Lake last week as they were returning to the United States on Jet Skis. Falcon Lake is a dammed section of the Rio Grande that has been plagued by pirates who rob boaters and fishermen who wander into Mexican waters. Hartley's death would be the first killing on the lake.
Mexican authorities have since questioned Hartley's account, saying they've retrieved no evidence indicating that a crime was ever committed.
Perry, however, called any suggestion that the woman is lying "reprehensible."
"Anyone who is trying to deflect off of what this actually is ought to be ashamed of themselves," he said in an interview Wednesday with Fox News.
Wife of American Shot in Mexican Waters Recounts Ordeal
Search continues for Falcon Lake victim
The Hartley family has complained that Mexican authorities are not doing enough to find David Hartley's body. Tiffany Hartley has said that her husband was shot in the head by three men chasing them in speedboats and that he fell off his Jet Ski and into the lake. His body has not been recovered.
Perry said Mexico needs to use every resource available to find the body and have it returned to U.S. soil.
"I hope that if (Mexican President Felipe Calderon) calls me within the next 48 hours, that the body has been retrieved," Perry told the Associated Press.
Officials in Mexico's Tamaulipas state, where the shooting occurred, have cast doubt on Hartley's story, telling the McAllen Monitor that no one near the lake reported hearing gunshots or the sounds of a Jet Ski engine.
The district attorney there, Marco Antonio Guerrero Carrixales, also told the paper that authorities "are not certain that incident happened the way that they are telling us."
Perry said the couple was innocently sightseeing in Mexico when Hartley's husband was attacked.
"This is a tragedy," he said.
Perry used the incident to renew his demand that the federal government do more to secure the U.S.-Mexico border as northern Mexico sinks deeper into drug-gang violence. The violence has spread in the last few months from Ciudad Juarez, the epicenter of Mexico's drug war across from El Paso, Texas, to the Mexican side of the Rio Grande Valley, including Tamaulipas state where Hartley reportedly disappeared. Two drug gangs, the Gulf Cartel and the Zetas, are battling for supremacy there and fighting the Mexican military.
"I don't know how many more Americans have to lose their lives before the federal government steps in and sends the troops (to the border)," Perry said.
Perry also told the Associated Press that he spoke Tuesday to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano's chief of staff and once again made his request for an additional 1,000 National Guard troops on the Texas-Mexico border, a request that has been repeatedly denied.
U.S. authorities are unable to investigate Hartley's disappearance because it happened in Mexico.
On Tuesday, Hartley's wife and mother, Pam Hartley, called on the Obama administration to intervene in the search.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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