Posted on 02/02/2006 3:49:41 PM PST by devane617
With its restrictions on everything from foreign ownership of real estate to the carrying of sidearms by American drug agents assigned there, the government of Mexico has made its touchiness about its sovereignty clear time and again. But when it comes to the sovereignty of the United States of America, Mexican contempt seems to know few limits.
The latest example came at 3:15 p.m. Monday (Jan. 23), as yet another standoff between armed Mexicans and American law-enforcement officers took place in Texas at the very spot where a similar standoff transpired Nov. 17. But instead of a fleeing dump truck full of dope pulled into Mexico by a bulldozer, Monday’s incident involved three vehicles heading southward at Neely’s Crossing — protected by the sudden appearance of at least one Humvee equipped with a heavy machine gun and manned by men in military-style uniforms.
Chief Deputy Mike Doyal of the Hudspeth County Sheriff’s Office told the Ontario, Calif., Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, that the Mexicans deployed more than 200 yards inside the U.S. border to keep his deputies, Texas state troopers and U.S. Border Patrol agents at a distance. Their firepower again had the desired effect. Though one vehicle — a Cadillac Escalade reportedly stolen in El Paso — was captured with 1,477 pounds of dope inside, the rest made it back across, unmolested by the U.S. lawmen.
"It’s been so bred into everyone not to start an international incident that it’s been going on for years," Doyal complained. "When you’re up against mounted machine guns, what can you do? Who wants to pull the trigger first? Certainly not us."
While one can sympathize with Doyal — U.S. Border Patrol agents’ and police officers’ light carbines and pistols would come off a poor second to vehicle-mounted heavy machine guns — in one respect, he seems to be missing the point. A deployment of military weapons by foreigners on American soil to threaten American peace officers is an international incident — at least, in the eyes of ordinary Americans.
And the latest incidence of it seems finally to have put the cat among Mexico’s pigeons. The Mexican consul general in El Paso announced Tuesday that his country’s army has now been ordered to keep its troops 3.2 miles from the U.S. border, while a Mexican Embassy spokesman declared in Washington that a full investigation is under way, including an inspection of Mexican military bases near the border to determine whether any uniforms or equipment are missing.
Both diplomats, however, loudly denied the Mexican army was involved in Monday’s incursion, blaming drug-cartel operatives instead. A U.S. law enforcement official declared there was no evidence that the uniformed gunmen were Mexican soldiers — though that official was unwilling to speak on the record.
But in light of the Mexican military’s 216 border incursions in the last nine years, detailed in a Homeland Security Department document obtained by a southern California newspaper, the highly trained Mexican army turncoats — "Los Zetas" — who now serve as drug-cartel enforcers, and the high-ranking Mexican army officers that have been found to be in the pay of Mexican drug lords in the past, the possibility of involvement by corrupt Mexican military personnel in this incident cannot be discounted — particularly given the appearance of uniformed men at the scene of Monday’s incident to dismantle a gun-mounted Humvee that had gotten stuck in the Rio Grande on the way back and been set afire by its occupants.
What did they have to hide? Those responsible for the security of our borders had best find out.
When will our elected officials catch on? When it is too late...
ping
I vote we just put the military on the border and get it under control. Stop the invasion now!!
Since the Mexican government is so absolutely certain that its military is positively never intruding on US soil, the US lawmen should call in quick helicopter strikes and kill all the trespassers. I'm sure the Mexican government would applaud.
We need a demilitarized zone, with concertina wire, machine gun emplacements, and anti-personnel mines. This BS has gone on far too long.
I think that the soldiers at Ft Bliss could hone their skills along the Texas and N.M. borders. Would be a great training ground....and help secure the border too.
Build it NOW!
A rocket or three from a UAV would answer this question succinctly and unmistakably.
And UAVs and Apaches. May resurrect the Skyraider.
The sheriff needs to start carrying RPGs in the trunks of his cars...
I am not at all sure it would be a good thing to turn these folks into combat teams. If we do that then every small town in America would soon have to have its own combat team. to fight drugs and traffic violations.
How about the Corsairs flying along with HellFires and Stingers slung underneath?
Video would be a nice start. A picture is worth a thousand words, you know.
You make that sound like a *BAD* thing... lol
I am talking about something beyond SWAT teams. Combat teams would be an escalation of that concept. SWAT teams are trained for and good for quick overwhelming assaults and quickly shooting the dogs and stomping the cats, not sustained firefights or stealthy demolition.
It would be a very tax expensive thing and the inevitible mistakes would be even more serious leading to more expensive settlements and lawsuits.
It would be a very tax expensive thing and the inevitible mistakes would be even more serious leading to more expensive settlements and lawsuits.
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