Posted on 09/08/2005 9:34:12 AM PDT by VU4G10
MEXICO CITY -- Radio talk shows and newspapers here buzzed with excitement over news that Mexico, long on the receiving end of U.S. disaster relief, was sending a hurricane aid convoy to help its larger, richer and more powerful northern neighbor.
Carrying water treatment plants, mobile kitchens and supplies to feed victims of Hurricane Katrina, the army convoy bound for Houston will be the first Mexican military unit to operate on U.S. soil since 1846.
The convoy has "a very high symbolic content," said Javier Oliva, a political scientist at Mexico's National Autonomous University. "This is a very sensitive subject, for historic and political reasons."
Large Mexican flags were taped to many of the 35 olive-green Mexican Army trucks and tractor trailers as they rumbled northward toward the border on Wednesday. The convoy was due to cross into Laredo, Texas, early Thursday, President Vicente Fox's office said.
"This is just an act of solidarity between two peoples who are brothers," Fox's spokesman Ruben Aguilar said of the mission.
The trucks, carrying 195 unarmed soldiers, officers and specialists, will apparently be used to provide water and hot meals for people evacuated from the New Orleans area.
The mayor of New Orleans has said thousands may have died from the powerful Aug. 29 hurricane. Hundreds of thousands have been displaced.
The convoy includes two mobile kitchens that can feed 7,000 people a day, three flatbed trucks carrying mobile water treatment plants and 15 trailers of bottled water, blankets and applesauce. It also includes military engineers, doctors and nurses.
"This is the first time that the United States has accepted a military mission from Mexico" for such work, said Javier Ibarrola, a newspaper columnist who covers military affairs in Mexico. "This is something that's never happened before."
The relief mission was controversial for some Mexican senators, who said the president should have sought Senate approval for sending troops.
But the government was already planning another 12-vehicle aid convoy for this week. It has sent a Mexican navy ship heading toward the Mississippi coast with rescue vehicles and helicopters.
The ship Papaloapan left the Gulf coast port of Tampico on Monday and is scheduled to dock Wednesday afternoon in the Mississippi River at a spot about 30 miles south of Biloxi, Miss.
"Military commands on both sides of the border have always been very sensitive about this kind of thing ... as we saw with the (U.S.) Marines when they came to Mexico to perform a funeral," said Oliva.
He was referring to a July 2004 incident in which Mexican troops interrupted the funeral of a Mexican-born Marine killed in Iraq. They had objected to the non-working, ceremonial rifles carried by two Marines who came from the United States for the ceremony.
Mexico later apologized but said it has an obligation to enforce a ban on foreign troops carrying weapons in its territory.
Mexico has sent disaster relief aid missions to other Latin American nations, but not to the United States.
In 1846, Mexican troops briefly advanced just north of the Rio Grande in Texas, which had then recently joined the United States. Mexico, however, did not then recognize the Rio Grande as the U.S. border.
The two countries quickly became mired in the Mexican-American War, which led to the loss of half of Mexico's territory in 1848.
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Carrying water treatment plants, mobile kitchens and supplies to feed victims of Hurricane Katrina, the (Mexican) army convoy bound for Houston will be the first Mexican military unit to operate on U.S. soil since 1846.The convoy has "a very high symbolic content," said Javier Oliva, a political scientist at Mexico's National Autonomous University. "This is a very sensitive subject, for historic and political reasons."
Yup.
Help graciously offered is gratefully accepted. Period.
I've been very encouraged at the outpouring of offers from around the world. The instinct to help others is alive and well, and proves that America does in fact have many friends.
Keep the aid. Withdraw your invading masses instead. We don't want to become a third world colony, thank you.
I very much appreciate the help from Mexico and I'm happy that they cannot read some of the ungracious comments on this thread.
Take 11 million of your people back, we need jobs for the evacuees. And as Citizens, they'll get paid a decent and LEGAL wage for the work!
Temporary ego relief.
You're not alone, Dadofmany. Responses such as the ones we're reading here are disturbing and uncalled for on FR. Thank you for speaking out.
Let me add my thanks to Mexico for their help.
Exactly. :)
We do need it since we do not longer produce much here in the usa any longer. Now that we have out sourced most of our wealth producing industries we are no longer able to provide the products needed to recover and must go begging to the rest of the world for help. Now not only is the usa the greatest debtor nation in the world we are now also the greatest begger nation in the world. Thankyou free traders!
...the (Mexican) army convoy bound for Houston will be the first Mexican military unit to operate on U.S. soil since 1846....
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Did Bush send them the money to fund the operation?? (/sarcasm) -- will this be a political windfall for the pro-illegal Washingtonians??? (OMG, yes!)
since we do not longer = since we no longer
Symbolic, but I appreciate the gesture.
Damn, could they detour through this part of AZ, with that menu, I to am a Katrina victim.
Just make sure we load their trucks with illegals before they head back to Mexico.
Just make sure we load their trucks with illegals before they head back to Mexico.
Will they be given priority in hiring to rebuild their own towns and cities?
Hey, at least the Mexicanos will be cooking food. Many of those folks from the ghetto have spent way too much time at the Golden Arches, so some home cooked Cabrito can't be all that bad.
Many of these evacuees have never worked an honest month in their life. You could put a gun to our underclass and many would still refuse to work.
Your right about Irag and it makes me mad too, but right at this moment people are in need!
You are slamming them hard.
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