Mexican Troops Kidnap Texas Family?

newsmax.com ^ | Thursday, Dec. 4, 2003 | Jon E. Dougherty

[VU4G10]

As many as eight armed Mexican soldiers crossed the border near a tiny Texas hamlet and kidnapped an American family of five last week, and are still holding one of them, sources tell NewsMax. According to a law enforcement source who spoke on condition of anonymity, the incident was reported to local authorities by family members upon their release the following day. From there, local officials reportedly contacted the FBI; federal officials are said to be looking into the incident.

The source said the Mexican unit may have been prompted to cross into the U.S. because the family – a father, mother and three minors – were shooting rabbits on their property near Candelaria, Texas, which is located along the border in Presidio County, about 170 miles south-southeast of El Paso.

A law enforcement bulletin describing the incident said the "family of five kidnapped … by Mexican officials at gunpoint" occurred around 5 p.m. local time Nov. 24. U.S. border authorities were notified the next day.

The family was "taken by gunpoint by Mexican officials to Mexico," the bulletin said. "As of Nov. 25 … four of the family members – one female and three minors – were released, while (the father) Escarcega, Ladislado remains in custody."

Presidio County, Texas authorities confirmed to NewsMax the incident had been reported to the sheriff's department, but a spokesman there said the FBI had taken over the investigation and referred questions surrounding the report to them.

An FBI spokeswoman in Washington, D.C., referred NewsMax to the bureau's El Paso, Texas office, but no one there returned calls seeking comment.

Nevertheless, the bulletin provided more specifics.

Shooting at Rabbits

"It's believed that the family members were shooting at rabbits along the [Rio Grande] river at the time of their kidnapping," the bulletin said. "Local law enforcement was contacted after the release of family members."

In the meantime, said the bulletin, "sector intelligence is continuing to gather information on the occurrence where … follow-up information is needed."

Law enforcement sources said the family was not shooting into Mexico or otherwise threatening Mexican military or civilian personnel.

The latest incursion into the U.S. by armed Mexican troops follows a series of similar incidents directed against U.S. civilians and law enforcement authorities. The most high-profile kidnapping occurred in August 1985, when an eight-man squad of Mexican troops crossed the border onto private property in San Diego County.

The troops came looking specifically for Robert Maupin, the land owner, after he reported the presence of a met amphetamine lab to the Drug Enforcement Agency, which in turn reported it to Mexican authorities. The lab, Maupin told officials, was visible from his land inside the U.S.

More recently, in May 2002, three armed Mexican troops in a military Humvee on the U.S. side of the border near Ajo, Ariz., fired on a Border Patrol agent in his vehicle. As the agent drove away from the scene, a bullet shattered the back glass of his Chevy Tahoe patrol vehicle, which as clearly labeled with U.S. Border Patrol markings.

House Immigration Reform Caucus chairman Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., told the Washington Times in a year ago his office had documented 118 instances where Mexican military or law enforcement had been seen on U.S. soil. In 60 percent of those cases, he said, the Mexicans were armed.

[fr_freak]

Personally I blame Catholicism and oligarchy ... but that's one and the same thing isn't it?

You blame Catholicism for the incompetence and corruption of Mexico? I challenge you to come up with one non-delusional reason why one would necessarily lead to the other. And, since you pointed out Catholicism in particular, I would have to assume that you think that only Catholicism among Judeo-Christianity is bad, rather than Christianity as a whole. In which case, I challenge you to come up with one non-delusional reason why that would be, especially in light of the incompetence and corruption we've recently seen in abundance in one of the more popular Protestant denominations, the Anglican (Episcopalian) church. I'm not trying to say that the Catholic Church (not the religion) doesn't have its problems, but why would you single them out?

Does this also mean that you believe that the millions of Catholics in the US are prevented from instituting a corrupt society in the US only by the righteous strength of Protestants, Episcopelians among them, and Atheists?

[Indy Pendance]

A family was kidnapped by a foreign country! What is going on here? No offense, this isn't the 'run of the mill illegals trying to cross the border and the coyote got busted' type story. A family was kidnapped by a foreign government! Why isn't this the top headline story on ALL the channels??????

[Paul C. Jesup]

Uh, this is a Newsmax story. We might look for confirmation of this story from another source prior to launching an invasion.

(sarcasm) Like who, ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN...

[Indy Pendance]

Thanks, sanity prevails, sorry to jump. I need to consider the source.

[No Blue States]

Just as an example here is 50 acres on ebay @ $200 an acre, with water.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2349717319&category=15841

But freemail me and i will send you a couple of good links i have bookmarked from work tommorow. I browse through them and lust for land all the time but cant afford it right now. Soem have homes on the acreage.

Even if you have to cap some trespassing federales it would be better than NYC. I know because i watched the Movie Warriors.

Come on home.

[JustPiper]

House Immigration Reform Caucus chairman Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., told the Washington Times in a year ago his office had documented 118 instances where Mexican military or law enforcement had been seen on U.S. soil. In 60 percent of those cases, he said, the Mexicans were armed.

Joe, you reading this? Calling Mr. Scarborough, please if you do not get this on TV the public at large will never know! M, we need to start mailing this story out to news media! Border list Freepers, please get OUTRAGED and mail thie story in to whoever you think will also be outraged!

[Pharmboy]

[Indy Pendance]

We might all despise those media outlets, but we also have to realize some right wing media outlets play the same game as the left. Newsmax is one whose biases show. Why is it FoxNews gets the hits from the left, but not News Max? (something to think about) Being conservative is accepting the truth, good or bad.

[JustPiper]

The keyword here Yonif is "Could" but it translates into Won't!

[JustPiper]

Can you ask him to get a hold of Fox over this? Hell, I will.

I wrote Joe and someone could write WND, particularly Michelle Malkin

[Paul C. Jesup]

True, but Newsmax openly admits it's bias, that is why they are a notch up on the rest of them.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Don't be too hasty, now. We have to kiss Vincente Fox's royal ass for giving us all that low cost labor and DemocRat votes.

[Dog Gone]

It's not going to gain any credibility with me until I see it in a news story other than NewsMax. This entire story is written in a way to anger readers, yet it uses anonymous sources.

I demand more accountability and verifiability before declaring war.

I find it incredibly difficult to believe that Mexican soldiers just decided it would be fun to invade America and kidnap a peace loving family who all happened to be enjoying the American sport of rabbit shooting. Somehow I think I'm not getting all the facts here.

NewsMax is far better at writing pure editorial stuff than writing "news", which is often editorial masquerading as news.

I've had my fill of that from the liberal press.

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

MEXICAN TROOPS ENTER N.M., SHOOT, GO FREE

Shots fired by Mexican soldiers while in New Mexico on March 14 shook a delicate diplomatic balance among the people who patrol both sides of the border - and could have upset that balance altogether.

But a U.S. Border Patrol administrator followed what has become tradition along the line and released detained soldiers.

Although many agents opposed the decision to release the soldiers, it helped preserve relative peace in a tense border zone, officials argue.

"If the soldiers had been detained longer, these tensions would have increased along the border, not only in El Paso, but also throughout the United States" side of the border, Border Patrol official Paul M. Berg said in a written statement.

"This would have put the lives of many agents at risk."

Tension has risen anyway along the border in recent weeks, with notable drug-war incidents such as the assassination of Tijuana's police chief and the killing of an alleged marijuana smuggler by a U.S. Border Patrol agent.

But it didn't reach the level it might have after March 14, Berg and others said.

"It isn't in the interest of ( law enforcement officers ) to harm any other officers," said Roberto Rodriguez Hernandez, the Mexican consul in Nogales, Ariz.

Berg, chief of the Border Patrol sector centered at Del Rio, Texas, gave this account of the March 14 events:

About 10:30 p.m., two Mexican military Humvees entered the United States in the desert south of Sunland Park, N.M, just west of El Paso. The two vehicles split up, and one followed a Border Patrol vehicle.

The Border Patrol agent eventually stopped his vehicle in front of the Humvee. The agent and soldiers both disembarked, with weapons drawn.

Sunland Park police arrived, and eventually the agent was able to persuade the eight soldiers and their captain that they were in the United States. The nine put down their weapons and turned themselves in to the agent.

Meanwhile, the second Humvee pursued a Border Patrol agent on horseback, who ordered them to stop. But the soldiers continued drawing closer, telling the agent to stop, and the agent fled to the safety of a hiding place in a wash.

As he escaped, that agent heard a gunshot.

The soldiers in the Humvee then saw a second mounted agent, whom they pursued until they became stuck in sand. As some soldiers worked to free the vehicle, others began walking back south, and the agent shone a flashlight on them.

One of those soldiers then fired another shot.

The remaining soldiers freed the Humvee, and all returned to Mexico.

That left the Border Patrol agents with nine soldiers who had not fired the shots, so they questioned them for a few hours before sending them back to Mexico on the order of El Paso Sector Chief Luis Barker.

The other soldiers were never apprehended.

The Border Patrol agents' union criticized the decision, considering that it was different from other cross-border incursions in that shots were fired.

"They violated the laws of our country, and nothing was done about their violating the laws," said Charles Newcomer, president of the union local in Southern Arizona. "It's almost like saying they have carte blanche, a get-out-of-jail free card."

But Berg argued Barker made the right decision.

"Border Patrol agents have enough narcotics and alien smugglers and other criminals on the border to contend with, without having to concern themselves with military units or Mexican law enforcement officers trying to get even," Berg said.

Among Border Patrol agents, worry about those who patrol the Mexican side of the line is widespread, leaving aside a revenge motive.

Often when an incursion arises, their first suspicion is that the soldiers or police officers were guiding a drug load.

That suspicion is based on dependable intelligence, said Ron Sanders, former chief of the Tucson sector, who retired last year.

The question that arises in the agents' minds, Sanders said, is: "Are they trying to arrest the drug smugglers and put them in jail, or are they trying to shake them down and take the drugs for their personal gain?"

That question arose during an incursion by Mexican soldiers on March 9 last year near San Miguel gate, about 30 miles south of Sells.

That morning, a U.S. Customs Service officer was watching the soldiers in their Humvee, several hundred yards north of the border.

The officer heard a shot, and a bullet struck the embankment below him. Then two more shots whizzed over his head, and the soldiers disappeared south of the border.

Later, customs agents met the soldiers at the gate and had a cross-border conversation, in which the soldiers said they had been firing warning shots to stop a drug smuggler they were pursuing.

The soldiers showed the American officers two men they had arrested and a load of marijuana they had seized.

Still, the American officers doubt the soldiers' stories.

"We did a lot of intelligence on the wrappings of the kilos," Sanders said, referring to drug loads seized by Border Patrol.

"Many of those we found had been wrapped by the smuggler, and when the military seized it, they put a new wrap over the top of the wrapping the smuggler had put on it, to differentiate their loads," Sanders said.

The military, Sanders said, would then reap profit from the sale of the drugs.

The soldiers in the March 14 New Mexico incident also said they had been pursuing a drug smuggler.

Returning the soldiers to Mexico follows the unwritten rule of border diplomacy: If an incursion is involuntary, or if it looks involuntary, the officers should be allowed to return to their country.

"It isn't a written rule, but it's logical, especially in the rural areas where it's difficult to distinguish" the border," Rodriguez said.

The March 14 incident may have resulted from a previous increase in drug-war violence in Ciudad Juarez, just across the border from El Paso.

The soldiers were sent to patrol the border in response to that violence, said Jose Z. Garcia, director of the Center for Latin American Studies at New Mexico State University.

Thus, as both Mexico and the United States increase border-area patrols, the chance of encounters increases, Garcia said.

"I think the increase in personnel located very close to the border cannot help but increase the level of tensions and increase the potential collateral damage to the officers themselves and to the residents."

[JustPiper]

John backed up FAIR on this:
Here is Sen. Cornyn's cosponsorship status on our key legislation. Send Sen. Cornyn a message by clicking in the "Send Message" column.

Get involved and take action!
Amnesty
S. 1545 - The Dream Act
S. 8 - Educational Excellence for All Learners Act of 2003
FAIR opposes these two bills and John voted NO to them, he comes through!

Send him a message about this article and whatever else is on your mind about Illegals and the border!

[lonestar]

All it would take is for all flights from the US to Mexico to be grounded.

[4.1O dana super trac pak]

JP

Cornyn is an illegal lover, stealth amnesty nut.

Check the FR keyword "cornyn"