U.S. closes consulate in Mexican border city

Washington, Jul 30 (EFE).- The United States closed its consulate in the crime-wracked Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez based on "threat information," the State Department said Friday.

The closure of the consulate was announced Thursday by the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City.

"The facility will be closed all day on Friday, July 30, and remain closed until the security review is completed," the embassy said in a statement. "American citizens are advised to avoid the area around the consulate general until it reopens."

"There is some threat information that we've received that we're evaluating," spokesman Philip Crowley said Friday in Washington when asked about the closure during the State Department's daily press briefing.

"It's hard to know," he said, whether the intelligence pertains to the area surrounding the facility or is "more specific to the consulate itself."

Juarez, which lies just across the border from El Paso, Texas, is Mexico's murder capital, with more than 1,600 slayings so far this year and upwards of 5,000 since 2008.

The violence is attributed to a battle between drug cartels over control of smuggling routes into the United States.

In March, a U.S. Consulate employee and her husband were killed by gunmen after attending a birthday party in Ciudad Juarez. The husband of another consulate staff member died at about the same time in a related attack.