Carin Zissis on NY Daily News about Death of Mexican Citizen Handed Over to U.S.
Carin Zissis on NY Daily News about Death of Mexican Citizen Handed Over to U.S.
It's hard "to see this incident as being something that would be difficult in the [U.S.-Mexico] relationship," said AS/COA's vice president.
A Mexican citizen handed over to the U.S. to face cartel-related charges died in federal custody three months later, after he was found hanging in his cell at the notorious MDC Brooklyn jail, the Daily News has learned raising questions about how a man with a cellmate was hanging in his cell with nobody seeming to notice until it was too late.
Carlos Alberto Guerrero Mercado, 47, accused of cooking up fentanyl that ended up in the U.S. was found lifeless in his cell at about 1:20 p.m. April 18, and died in a hospital on April 28, after he "suffered a cardiac event," according to a filing by federal prosecutors. Sources familiar with the case said his cellmate in the troubled Sunset Park jail found him hanging in his cell.
A "unit distress" alarm summoned staff to the cell, and correction officers found him on the ground, unconscious with no pulse, near two other inmates, the sources said. The officer attempted CPR and gave him two doses of the anti-overdose drug Narcan, then called fro EMS to get him to NYU Langone Hospital in Sunset Park, where he was kept on life support until his death, the sources said. [...]
Despite speculation that the move was made as a gesture to appease President Donald Trump, Mexico has been working more closely with the U.S. under President Claudia Scheinbaum and her Secretary of Security, Omar Garcia Harfush a popular anti-cartel crusader known as Mexico's "Batman," noted Carin Zissis, Mexico analyst at Americas Society/Council of the Americas.
"The relationship between the United States and Mexico is so immense and huge, and there's so many different challenging things going on in the relationship simultaneously, that it's difficult to see this incident as being something that would be difficult in the relationship," Zissis told The News, adding that the Mexican public has been suffering for decades from cartel violence.
