Thread: Mexico issues border ban

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/ ... 18714.html


Web Posted: 01/25/2006 12:00 AM CST
Mariano Castillo
Express-News Border Bureau

A day after as many as 20 armed men in military fatigues crossed the Rio Grande into Texas before being chased back by U.S. authorities, the Mexican government ordered its troops not to come within 2 kilometers of the border.

While the Mexican Foreign Affairs Ministry and Defense Ministry denied their military had a role in providing protection for Monday's marijuana smuggling operation into Hudspeth County, the government said its military wouldn't be permitted in the border zone without authorization.

The face-off along the Rio Grande between the drug smugglers and U.S. law enforcement officials came just days after Mexican and U.S. officials downplayed news reports that U.S. Border Patrol agents have occasionally seen what appear to be Mexican army units in the United States.

"If it rattles like a snake and looks like a snake, it's probably a damn snake," Hudspeth County Sheriff Arvin West said. "There's no doubt it's Mexican military."

The encounter happened at about 2 p.m. east of the town of Fort Hancock.

Sheriff's deputies, later joined by joined by DPS troopers and Border Patrol agents, spotted and tried to stop three sport utility vehicles, which fled toward the border.

A Cadillac Escalade in the convoy blew a tire and its driver fled, West said. Authorities found 1,475 pounds of marijuana inside the vehicle.

The two remaining SUVs made it to a spot known as Neely's Crossing, about 15 downstream from Fort Hancock, West said.

There they met a military-style Humvee on the U.S. side, armed with a heavy machine gun, which quickly crossed the shallow water into Mexico, deputies reported.

A Toyota 4Runner made it across the river, but a Ford Expedition that followed it got stuck.

"It was on their side of the river, so we just sat there and watched them," West said.

What they saw was uniformed men guarding the vehicles with automatic weapons.

After three failed tries to tow the stuck Expedition with the Humvee, men in civilian clothing unloaded what looked like bundles of marijuana and set the SUV ablaze, West said.

All the U.S. authorities could do was take photos, which West said was evidence that military or pseudo-military crossings do occur.

"The government of Mexico denies entirely that this incident involved the Mexican military," said the Foreign Ministry statement, issued Tuesday. "It was done by organized crime, including drug traffickers who are known to use military clothing and equipment."

The Mexican Defense Ministry said it has begun an investigation but "there were no Humvees assigned to the fort at Ciudad Juárez with the type of weaponry" mentioned by U.S. authorities.

Gov. Rick Perry asked Steve McCraw, his director for homeland security, to investigate the matter, according to the governor's office.

"This incident is a troubling reminder that criminal organizations do indeed smuggle drugs across our border and we need to continue to focus our law enforcement efforts on stopping it," Perry spokeswoman Rachael Novier said.

The Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, of Ontario, Calif., touched off controversy last week by citing what it said were U.S. Homeland Security Department figures showing Border Patrol agents reported spotting what appeared to be Mexican soldiers on U.S. soil 216 times since 1996.

Homeland security officials said the claims were overblown.

"When you see someone in green military-style uniform and a green Humvee protecting what appears to be a load of narcotics, and the individuals in uniform flank that vehicle to the left and the right, it makes you wonder who they are," said Rick Glancey, the interim executive director of the Texas Border Sheriffs Coalition.

"I think the United States government should demand an answer from Mexico as to what was going on in Hudspeth County," he said.

http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/mld/ledg ... 703174.htm

Posted on Tue, Jan. 24, 2006

U.S. lawmaker calls for troops after clash with Mexican smugglers
BY DAVID MCLEMORET
he Dallas Morning News

DALLAS - A West Texas standoff along the Rio Grande between U.S. law enforcement officers and heavily armed Mexican drug smugglers in military-style clothing prompted congressional demands Tuesday for an international investigation and a call for deployment of U.S. troops to the border.

The incident, which occurred Monday on U.S. soil at an isolated river crossing about 50 miles east of El Paso, Texas, is the latest incident involving armed incursions along the U.S. border with Mexico.

And it comes less than a week after Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff called a California newspaper's account of such border incursions "overblown."

The incident Monday involved an encounter between two Hudspeth County Sheriff's Department deputies and three Department of Public Safety troopers and 10 heavily armed drug smugglers.

A spokesman for Mexico's Foreign Ministry said Mexican military personnel had nothing to do with the incident and suggested the trespassers may have been drug traffickers wearing military-style gear.

The incident began on Interstate 10 near the Sierra Blanca checkpoint when DPS troopers began chasing three westbound SUVs believed to be carrying marijuana.

When the SUV drivers saw that they were being followed, they made a U-turn and headed south toward the river to an area known as Neely's Crossing, said Rick Glancey, executive director of the Texas Border Sheriffs Coalition.

At the crossing, one of the SUVs drove across the shallow river into Mexico. A second one got stuck in the muddy banks. And as the Texas deputies watched, a military-style Humvee attempted to pull it from the mud, while several armed men in green uniforms fanned out around it, Glancey said.

When the Humvee failed to extricate the truck, a group of men in civilian clothes walked into the ankle-deep river, removed what appeared to be bales of marijuana and hauled them to the Mexican side. They then set the truck, a Ford Expedition, ablaze.

The third vehicle, a Cadillac Escalade, was abandoned on the U.S. side with a flat tire as the driver escaped on foot. Deputies found 1,447 pounds of marijuana inside.

"What this latest incidence underscores is the necessity of increased support for local law enforcement to aid improving our border security," said Glancey. "If this doesn't open D.C.'s eyes, I don't know what will."

Monday's incident was not the first face-to-face confrontation for Hudspeth County deputies.

In November, deputies responded to assist Border Patrol agents at the border town of Fort Hancock, Texas, where they encountered six men in military uniforms attempting to carry a load of marijuana over the river.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials said Tuesday they have launched an inquiry into the Monday incident and asked Mexican authorities for a thorough investigation and full answer on what happened.

"(Customs) is coordinating closely with the appropriate federal, state and local authorities," said Kristi Clemens, Customs' assistant commissioner for public affairs. "The U.S. government is also discussing the matter with the government of Mexico and is asking for a thorough investigation and response. We take very seriously and investigate fully any alleged incident of criminal activity, threats against our agents or possible incursions."

Texas Gov. Rick Perry also has ordered an investigation, spokeswoman Kathy Walt said.

U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., a frequent critic of the administration's border security efforts, called Tuesday for the federal government and the governments of southern border states to immediately deploy troops to the U.S.-Mexico border in light of what he termed "recent armed assistance Mexico's military has given to drug smugglers."

"Our border has literally turned into a war zone with foreign military personnel challenging our laws and our sovereignty," Tancredo said.

"The only way to deal with this dangerous situation is to tap the resources of our own military," Tancredo said. "I call on President Bush and the governors of border states to immediately deploy military personnel to defend our borders against the Mexican military."

U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Terrorism and Homeland Security, called on Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to initiate a formal investigation on the reported border crossings and to begin a dialogue with Mexican officials to prevent further occurrences.

"These illegal incursions are a violation of our sovereignty and pose a significant danger to U.S. law enforcement officials and citizens near the border - especially if all parties involved are armed. The potential for violence is significant."

Sen. Kyl noted that the Department of Homeland Security released figures that indicate that there have been 231 documented incursions along the 2,000-mile border with Mexico since 1996.

Of those, 63 in that nine-year period occurred in Arizona and 28 occurred along the Texas border, according to Homeland Security.

In each instance, U.S. agents at the local level asked Mexican federal police and army officials to clarify what happened.

Many included accidental forays by legitimate Mexican authorities across a poorly defined border in rough and isolated country while in pursuit of drug dealers. The Texas-Mexico border, however, is delineated by the Rio Grande River.

Investigators have long documented that Mexican drug gangs often wear camouflage clothing and carry military-style automatic weapons.

But Tuesday's request for a Mexican government response significantly ups the ante, federal officials said.

In Mexico, officials said the National Defense Ministry has begun an investigation of the incident and launched a search for the vehicles identified by photographs taken by Hudspeth County deputies.

Hudspeth County Chief Deputy Mike Doyal said that men dressed as Mexican soldiers manned what looked like .50-caliber machine guns mounted on vehicles about 200 yards inside the U.S. border during the incident.

In Mexico, a ministry spokesman said that the Army's Ciudad Juarez garrison does not maintain Humvees with mounted .50-caliber machine guns.

"It cannot be ruled out that said actions are designed as much to harm the image of our armed forces as the bilateral cooperation between Mexico and the United States in the fight against organized crime and, in particular, narcotrafficking," a foreign ministry spokesman said.

Yesterday (1-24-06) when I first heard about this story, I checked both Fox and CNN's websites for more information. Both sites had no coverage of this story. I sent an email to Fox asking them why the story wasn't being reported and that it should be headline news! I recieved no response as of this morning. I again searched the site today and finally found the story buried, where you could only find it if you knew what you were looking for. Why are the major news services trying to hide the border turmoil from us? Are they in the pockets of the cheap labor lobby as well?

With so much corruption going up there in Washington, it would't surprise me that the worst is true. Why are we looking for al qaeda when drugs in america is far more deadlier than any terrorist attack. Why doesn't Bush declare war on mexican cartels since it won't be long before they decide to assume a terrorist role. Bush doesn't really make a lot of sense this days. The mexican government has been known to lie here and there. SO who cares what they say. Their military is coming over this side to guarantee the delivery of their goodies. Wake up America ! This is real.

Originally Posted by WavTek

Yesterday (1-24-06) when I first heard about this story, I checked both Fox and CNN's websites for more information. Both sites had no coverage of this story. I sent an email to Fox asking them why the story wasn't being reported and that it should be headline news! I recieved no response as of this morning. I again searched the site today and finally found the story buried, where you could only find it if you knew what you were looking for. Why are the major news services trying to hide the border turmoil from us? Are they in the pockets of the cheap labor lobby as well?

I didn't have any trouble finding it yesterday afternoon, but it was shifted from the headline to the sidebar as soon as the Supreme Court nomination became the hottest headline. It made it to the evening news on Fox.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,182650,00.html

Chertoff Quote:
And it comes less than a week after Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff called a California newspaper's account of such border incursions "overblown

What does it take for him to consider something "Serious" ? I hate to think what it takes.

This laxed attitude has to go. We have no room for that kind of attitude in America anymore. We have already had a devastating terrorist attack, we are at war against terrorists and terrorists want to get into our country.

Wake up Chertoff. Send troops to the border. Go tell your boss that you cannot give the American people the best possible security without putting troops on the border.

I am so IMPRESSED! They're going to ask the Mexican government for an investigation. It's almost as if they think that the Mexicans are going to be interested in cutting off a very profitable endeavor for the sake of 'relations' with the US. It's almost as if they think that the Mexican government has some control of what's going on in their country. I mean..don't they control what's going on in Nuevo Laredo...Brownsville...etc? It's almost as if they don't know that murders of Mexican legislators take place on a weekly basis.

It's almost as if they believe that can take the word of the Mexican government on anything.

I do NOT believe that the average American citizen is that naive. For my part, they should CAN the BS and get REAL.

RR

BTTT

added to the homepage

http://www.alipac.us/article-1014-thread-1-0.html