MEXICO CITY -- (AP) -- A Cuban government official was shot to death here
 Thursday after an apparent robbery attempt, the Mexico City prosecutor's office
 said.

 The victim -- identified as Boris Valdez López, 36, by the Cuban government news
 agency Prensa Latina -- was shot after leaving the Cuban Embassy after
 midnight, Mexican officials said.

 The prosecutor's office said he was an embassy employee. Prensa Latina
 identified him as a diplomat who arrived in Mexico Feb. 10 ``to carry out some
 internal work in the diplomatic mission'' and who was to be here only temporarily.

 He left the embassy in a car driven by another embassy official, Sachie
 Hernández Machín, according to the prosecutor's office. Three men approached
 the car, and one of them stood in front of it, Hernández Machín told prosecutors.
 She said she slowed down, then heard a shot that hit Valdez López in the back.

 He was taken to Hospital Espanol where he underwent surgery but died at about
 3 a.m.

 Hernández Machín could not say whether the three men wanted to steal the car
 or just wanted money.

 The attackers fled. The driver was unhurt.

 In Havana, Prensa Latina reported that the president of Mexico's lower house, the
 Chamber of Deputies, expressed condolences to his Cuban counterpart, Ricardo
 Alarcón, and said the murder was the shameful result of the lack of security in the
 Mexican capital.

 The deputy, Ricardo García, is in Cuba to hold talks with members of the Cuban
 parliament and to tour scientific and educational facilities.