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i was just reading from your book it

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says on february 11th officials from ice

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sent

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you

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in jaime zapata

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on an assignment

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to retrieve equipment from mexico city

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so i you know i don't spend a ton of

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time on this because there's so many big

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issues but i do want to kind of get into

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some of the details of exactly what

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happened

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to you you were shot jaime

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was killed

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um

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what what were you got where were you

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guys at the time and why were you sent

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to mexico city

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uh i was stationed in mexico city as a

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an accredited diplomat working for uh

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ice as a special agent

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you just take on a different role in

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mexico in educating the government and

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doing a lot of training and and mexico

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was hand in hand actually with all of

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criminal investigations of all sorts

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that we talked about but that particular

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day

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we were returning from

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closer to the monterey region

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picking up equipment from our ice

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counterparts from that office returning

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back to mexico city it was kind of a box

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assignment i challenged it

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we weren't supposed to be on that road

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there was an alert issued by the

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ambassador prohibiting anyone from

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driving on highway 57 so so tell me

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about

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so you were going to drive from mexico

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city

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to monterey

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correct how far is that it's about an

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eleven hour drive okay along a highway

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called highway 57 i've had most people

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who haven't heard that name i haven't

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either highway 57 which is uh think of

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it as uh it's an interstate but it just

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has the name highway but it's an

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interstate it's the toll road it's the

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quote unquote and there was an alert

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and we're talking about this is like in

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california the five freeway it sounds

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correct correct so there's an alert

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not to drive on highway 57 correct a few

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weeks before the ambassador issued an

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alert to all u.s personnel prohibiting

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them from driving for personal or

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business reasons because we knew the

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intel i knew the intel we all knew the

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intel that the zetas con

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cartel controlled most of those

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corridors that we drove we we drove

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that's the main artery between mexico

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city and texas through monterey up to

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texas

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and we knew that the zetas cartel had a

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huge presence in certain parts of these

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uh of this highway and uh my my

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supervisors ignored that and ignored

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that intelligence and send us on that on

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that highway anyway without any backup

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without the

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customary uh you know standard operating

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procedure that we would do in mexico

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because of the security issues

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so it was just the two of you driving

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what kind of vehicle it's an arm a 2009

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armored suburban vehicle

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okay uh and when you say armored does it

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also have the um

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you know where it's all

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bulletproof protected or whatever it's a

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bulletproof car um our all of it is

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armored uh it's uh a lot of people think

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it's

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compare it to a car a

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shoe that's waterproof it's water

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resistant it might still get wet and so

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these are armored vehicles and yes they

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stop i'm the reason why i'm still alive

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is because that that windshield of one

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of that of that vehicle stopped the

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rounds that were trying to get to me but

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um a lot of rounds did come into the to

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the suburban but yes it was armored um

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and there's a lot of issues that

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happened during the ambush because

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that's what it was on the way back we

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got ambushed by two suvs what what

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exactly were if you can tell were you

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guys going to pick up

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uh it was electronic equipment more like

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tracking devices that was going to be

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used for a money laundering case that we

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were working on in mexico

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and there was a sense of urgency for my

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supervisors to have that back in mexico

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city uh i had challenged it let's bring

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it by air let's bring it by other means

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but they denied all that and said you

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got to go get it when you got the

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assignment you considered this to be a

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dangerous assignment

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absolutely especially because i hadn't

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been previewed to any of the information

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you know in the law enforcement world

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you got to be briefed

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and i hadn't been briefed all of a

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sudden i got the assignment thrown on me

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i had just gotten back into the country

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from another assignment

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uh that day the day before and then i

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got the assignment

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and i'm i don't know what's going on and

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uh i'm trying to catch up and they had

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already made these arrangements two

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months before

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and had been working on this and i was

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never privy to it i get brought in the

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day of the assignment and i'm

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questioning all these issues

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okay so you guys were um

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by the way when you see the vehicle is

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there any

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way someone would know that it was u.s

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agents inside this vehicle does it have

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any markings in that regard

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yeah it has diplomatic plates on it for

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sure these plates are looked different

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uh they're um besides uh during the

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during the ambush i yelled at them and

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at the shooters and identified ourselves

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as americans the u.s embassy employees

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as diplomats that this was a diplomatic

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vehicle and in fact they did testify in

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in 2017 at the court hearing that in

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fact they did hear me they knew we were

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americans

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so tell us what happened uh

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as far as the ambush

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so on the way back after picking up the

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equipment

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um

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i had been driving most of the way uh

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jaime zapata takes the wheel right after

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lunch

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and within 50 minutes were uh

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ambushed basically by two suvs full of

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armed gunmen zetta cartel members that

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we didn't know at that time obviously

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were just the cartel members they forced

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us off the side of the road

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and uh amongst a lot of confusion

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and some shots that were fired they were

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trying to open the doors and while we

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were locking the doors uh my window my

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armored window came down two inches on

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my side we didn't know that because of

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the lock buttons and the window buttons

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were next to each other on this suburban

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and so during the commotion two of the

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shooters introduced an ak-47 and a

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handgun by my head on my side and i

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raised the window and caught the barrels

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of both guns

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trying to avoid them and without warning

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they opened fire into the cabin of the

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suburban striking agent zapata multiple

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times striking me three times once in my

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chest and twice in my left leg and um

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so you know eventually they pull the

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guns out i raised the window they shot

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at us over 100 rounds

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uh try to get out of there crash the

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vehicle agent zapata became unresponsive

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we ended up in the median

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and one of the one of the suvs still one

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left the other one came back two

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shooters came back and stood in front of

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me and with two ak-47s just were trying

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to penetrate and shooting through the

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the front windshield to get to me and

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then they left thinking that it had gone

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through

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and so they they left us for dead i

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called uh the u.s embassy asked for help

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called the federal police the only

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person that i trusted at that time from

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the federal government

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and we were there for 40 minutes which

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is a very long time in the middle of

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that highway until uh helped arrived

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wow

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so they never were able to enter the

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vehicle

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no

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um why do you think they did what they

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did

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i think they knew that we were americans

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and i think they wanted a hit on

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americans

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you'll hear the uh

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the rhetoric on the the defense that

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they wanted to

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carjack us or they wanted that suburban

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and that's absolutely not true they

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destroyed that suburban

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um

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they knew that we were americans they uh

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testified that we were americans they

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heard they had happened many times in

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mexico with other u.s agents are held at

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gunpoint

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and they identify themselves as dea fbi

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and they kind of throw their hands up

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and say okay and the cartel isn't alone

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there was this always unwritten rule

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that you just don't mess with u.s law

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enforcement in mexico ever since the

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killing of

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dea agent enrique camarena in 1985.

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but that all changed on february 15th of

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2011.

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and why do you think it changed why why

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would the cartels or that particular

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cartel

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suddenly want to mess with the us

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this is that's a great question uh and

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not one that i get a lot and and it's a

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great question because that's where you

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start seeing the shift

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of these of the the the the cartels how

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uh aggressive and abrasive they've

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become and no longer fear

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us law enforcement and that's what we're

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seeing at the border when we get talking

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about that they no longer fear that

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and they no longer feel the

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repercussions and they basically don't

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care and they have taken over

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territories if not all of mexico and

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they're not gonna uh they're not gonna

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let the u.s law enforcement or anyone

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get in their way of what they want to do

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yeah it was always been my impression

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that

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they don't want to awake the sleeping

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giant we'll call that the the us that

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they're getting away with

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murder down there literally and

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figuratively

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and the mexican government is inept

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in controlling them

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and then you've got the ten thousand

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pound gorilla

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right across the border which

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theoretically we could do something

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about them it would take a big

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commitment to do something about them in

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cooperation with mexico and so on but i

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always felt that the cartels attitude

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was hey let's not mess with the us let's

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not wake them up let's not kill u.s

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tourists for instance you know if u.s

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tourists started dying

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that's going to wake us up so

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it's always been my impression that they

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don't want to do things to wake up the

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us but you're actually saying that yes

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that was the case but you think that's

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changing

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uh it's it's changed and uh yes u.s

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tourists are are being killed just last

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month two tourists in tulum next to

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cancun were killed by gunfire one from

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the us and one from germany and so it

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happens all the time where people are

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caught in these gunfires at higher

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reports is it is it kind of caught in

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crossfire gunfire yes yes most of the

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time it is uh and um but you know

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they're there they're at the the cartels

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are everywhere especially in the resort

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areas at the high end resort areas they

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killed two cartel members on the beach

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they came in via the water

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and executed two of them just we're

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talking about two weeks ago in cancun

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and there's video of it as well and i've

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seen that video and it's uh

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they're brazen they don't care and and

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you're there you're vacationing and the

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bullets fly and that's where they might

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not necessarily target and you're right

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that the the cartels don't want to

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target the tourists because they want

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the tourism to come in because they sell

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a lot of drugs and a lot of illegal

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activity with the tourists that come

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into mexico but um but they don't care

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when they're going to execute their

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their business and kill people they