State Department removes children of US diplomats from Monterrey, Mexico due to drug violence

US pulls diplomats’ children from Monterrey

WASHINGTON — The State Department is telling U.S. diplomats in the northern Mexican city of Monterrey to remove their children from the area after a shoot-out in front of an American school there and growing threats of kidnapping.

In a new travel warning for Mexico issued Friday, the department said the situation in Monterrey was such that it had decided the “immediate, practical and reliable way to reduce the security risks for children of U.S. government personnel is to remove them from the city.” The step follows an Aug. 20 shooting outside the American Foundation School.

The department said that beginning Sept. 10, the U.S. Consulate General in Monterrey would become a “partially unaccompanied post,” meaning that diplomats and other government personnel stationed there will not be allowed to have their minor children with them.