Posted on 06/27/2002 7:12:23 AM PDT by Stand Watch Listen
MATAMOROS, Mexico — Ongoing military operations in Mexican border cities, along with two recent U.S. shootings involving Mexican soldiers, is raising the specter of border militarization here.On June 14, a vehicle transporting 23 undocumented immigrants was fired upon in the desert west of Mexicali, wounding six.
Under fire, apparently from the Mexican military, the vehicle made it across the U.S.-Mexico border into California.
While U.S. and Mexican officials are reviewing the incident, it appears to be only the latest in a series of events that may point to an increased presence of the Mexican military on the border in the past year, a trend that has unnerved residents in both countries.
"It's a policy of the Mexican federal government to guard its borders more closely, both to fight drug trafficking and (terrorists)," said José María Ramos, a professor and expert in national security at the Colegio de la Frontera Norte in Tijuana. "It's an expansion of the participation of the Mexican army in the principal border cities."
That has meant the new presence of military checkpoints on some international bridges in Tamaulipas state; roundups of drug traffickers in border cities as far west as Tijuana; and new military checkpoints in downtown business centers.
The show of force has pushed at least one U.S. congressman to suggest sending U.S. troops to the border.
Mexican security analysts say the Mexican army has been involved in public security since the mid-1990s. But under the administration of Mexican President Vicente Fox, that presence has been heavily increased.
Only days after new checkpoints appeared on the Tamaulipas-Texas bridges in April, an 18-year-old U.S. citizen crossing back to the United States from Reynosa, across the border from McAllen, was shot three times by a Mexican soldier.
His father, César Haro, was traveling with him and insists the pair did nothing to provoke the shooting.
Mexican officials are investigating the incident and have provided no evidence to contradict Haro.
"These soldiers are very poorly trained," Haro said. "They'll kill a person as though it's nothing — and innocent people, too. They need soldiers with special training on the border, because the border is very different."
Matamoros residents say their lives have been disrupted as the Mexican army establishes its frontal assaults on drug trafficking, using helicopters, armored personnel carriers and random checkpoints.
Even with its show of might, residents say the military may not be successful.
Felipe Zúñiga lives in Las Blancas outside Matamoros and said his neighbors dabbled in the drug trade. Recently, when two helicopters landed in his street, one full of armed soldiers and a smaller one outfitted for a gunner, his neighbors fled.
"They abandoned the place," Zúñiga said. "Now, they live in Brownsville," across the border in the United States.
Besides questioning the effectiveness of the military operations, Zúñiga said that he, like other residents, has been fearful of the ongoing military activity.
The state's office of human rights in Matamoros received 18 complaints of human rights violations by the Mexican army since military operations began around February, said Héctor León Pérez Guajardo, second-in-command of the agency.
Brig. Gen. Luís Roberto Gutiérrez Flores, commander of the Eighth Military Zone in Tamaulipas, said the number of soldiers in Tamaulipas has not increased.
"The amount of personnel is the same, but the operations are more frequent," he said.
Gutiérrez said the Tamaulipas operations began in April 2001 with the arrest of prominent drug trafficking suspect Gilberto "El June" García Mena by 200 military and federal police officers.
Alliances that often involve teams that include the military, the federal police and the Mexican attorney general's office are becoming more common, Ramos said.
What becomes a problem is that Mexican soldiers aren't trained to deal with complex binational border issues, such as drug trafficking, terrorism and immigration, he said.
Errors committed by bumbling soldiers also leave Mexico open to political attacks.
U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., recently proposed sending U.S. troops to the border after learning from the Border Patrol that Mexican soldiers made 23 incursions into U.S. territory in 2001.
Tancredo wrote a challenging letter to Fox, listing the incidents.
"If your government's argument is that the soldiers were pursuing drug traffickers, then how does that explain the incident last year involving members of the Mexican army who were found in a sewer under Nogales, Ariz.?" Tancredo wrote.
Tancredo's direct approach drew a volley of criticism from Juan José Bremer Martino, Mexican ambassador to the United States.
"The tone of your letter is indeed surprising," Bremer wrote in response. "I must stress that Mexico has not had and does not have a policy of military incursions."
While Ramos, the Tijuana professor, said increased intelligence sharing across the U.S.-Mexico border would more effectively deter illicit trafficking, some Mexican residents said they welcome the military — as long as it focuses on taking out the criminals.
They worry about allegations of extortion and other abuses on the part of soldiers that they've read about in local newspapers.
"I think it's good if the soldiers are here, if they don't do bad things," Matamoros resident Elizabeth Cruz said. "If they really take care of the city, that's fine. But if they cart off people just because they don't like the looks of their faces, that's abuse."
Thank goodness those nice illegals made it to California and infinite welfare!
As to their low level of training, let them have all the target practice they can generate in the course of their duties.
Point is to make the risks less than acceptible and a .308 in the back really could be turn-off. [pun intended]
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