Thread: Fox pledges probe into incident on Rio Grande

http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/miami/16763.html

http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/miami/vi_16763.html

Fox pledges probe into incident on Rio Grande

El Universal
Sábado 28 de enero de 2006
Miami Herald, página 1

President Vicente Fox said Mexico will investigate an incident earlier this week in which individuals dressed as Mexican soldiers faced off with Texas police along the Rio Grande, while U.S. officials sought to downplay the ongoing diplomatic spat.

"We are going to waste time if we are blaming each other (for the incident)," said Fox during a press conference while on a state visit in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. He pledged a probe but also called on U.S. authorities to look into the matter as well.

He added that security along the Rio Grande is the shared responsibility of both nations.

The incident has sparked a flurry of diplomatic notes and statements from both governments, with the U.S. calling for a Mexican investigation, and Mexico taking offense at the tone of a letter to the press released by U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Tony Garza.

U.S. State Department press spokesman Sean McCormack defended Garza on Friday, and reiterated the calls for a thorough investigation while highlighting recent cooperation between the two nations.

"(The Mexican government) has the primary responsibility for investigating what actually happened on the Mexican side of the border," McCormack said in a press conference, also noting that "over the past year our cooperation with the government of Mexico on border issues has improved."

GARZA STATEMENT

When asked if Garza´s strongly-worded letter released on Wednesday, which called for a full investigation into the incident, had antagonized the Mexican government, McCormack said Garza was "an outstanding ambassador who´s doing a great job on behalf of the American people."

Garza sent another statement to the press on Friday in which he called on Mexico to provide the U.S. government with "any investigative results they may have" related to violence on the border.

"The United States and Mexico enjoy an excellent level of cooperation, and we view the government of President Vicente Fox as a partner and a friend," Garza added in the statement.

Mexican officials have voiced a number of theories about the incident, in which police from Hudspeth County, Texas, observed armed, uniformed men in a military-style Humvee help apparent drug traffickers escape across the Rio Grande and into Mexico.

Earlier in the week, presidential spokesman Rubén Aguilar said the individuals were likely drug traffickers disguised as Mexican soldiers. And on Thursday, Foreign Relations Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez, in response to Garza´s letter, questioned whether the individuals dressed as soldiers were even Mexicans, suggesting they could have been U.S. soldiers or members of another group disguised as Mexican soldiers.

McCormack and other U.S. officials said that scenario was unlikely on Friday.

"I don´t know of any facts that would substantiate this particular theory," McCormack said.

U.S. Border Patrol Chief David Aguilar said the incident must be investigated, regardless of who the individuals were, AP reported.

"Regardless of whether it was people dressed as Mexican military, whether it was Mexican military or whether it was individuals that dedicate their lives to smuggling, these were criminals," he said. "They were criminals and regardless of who they were it has to be stopped."

EL UNIVERSAL reporters José Luis Ruiz and Natalia Gómez and AP reporter Alicia Caldwell contributed to this report.

I didn't have to read the whole article. I know right now, what Vicente Fox is going to say. We didn't do it. It was those Drug dealers. They have our jeeps and uniforms. We are innocent. I bet I know a PR firm that is squirming in there seats. Oh yeah. He will also state that it is the United States falt. Watch and see.

Fox is the wolf dressed in chickens clothing...of course it wasn't them...it was Australian aborigines...dressed as Mexicans...driving Mexican military vehicles...bringing drugs across the Rio Grande ( lost again, of course ) in order to do their bit for the 'poor Mexicans'.

Their form of 'foreign aid'.

RR