Mexican soldiers in border crossings

Washington Times ^ | 5/13/02 | Steve Miller

[kattracks]

Heavily armed Mexican soldiers and police are crossing the U.S. border repeatedly, provoking charges from Capitol Hill that they are providing cover for drug smugglers and illegal immigrants.

Last year, there were 23 incursions documented by the U.S. Border Patrol, prompting Rep. Tom Tancredo to contact Mexican President Vicente Fox last week, asking for an end to these incidents.

[PRND21]

Mr. Williams seems more knowledgeable and/or honest than Mr. Tancredo.

But Johnny Williams, who heads field operations for the Immigration and Naturalization Service, said that incursions along the border are inevitable given the tense situation. Some degree of corruption on both sides may be unavoidable.

"Vicente Fox has done a good job in rooting out corruption," Mr. Williams said. "I would not discount the fact that with thousands of officers on both sides, there may be someone in uniform doing something wrong."

[RickyJ]

Does anyone really believe the Mexican army is really trying to stop illegal immigration?
Please!

It is painfully obvious they are providing cover to drug smugglers and anyone else who pays them enough money to sneak something into the USA.

Yet Bush describes Mexico as our best friend; with friends like this who needs enemies.

[RickyJ]

BUMP

[Ajnin]

Johnny Williams is my boss. He is one of the reasons the Border is such a mess. He is one of the people that has taken away the M-4's from Border Patrol Agents so they can't defend themselves in these types of situations. Johnny is a coward.

[sarcasm]

ping

[bulldog905]

Does anyone really believe the Mexican army is really trying to stop illegal immigration?.

Yes, they are trying as hard to stop illegal immigration, as Yassir Arafat is trying to stop the suicide bombers.

The uncontrolled "immivasion" will prove just as deadly to the United States as the terrorists will to Israel.(Perhaps more so).

[firewatch]

Our troops should be deployed in the border areas.There is a rich training ground for our recon troops and military police.Night and day troops could infiltrate these areas,set up listening posts,capture or kill armed intruders and send pictures to any representatives not beholding to or cultivating a constituency at the expense of the rest of the country.Yes,that's what I said Mr.Bush.There is not enough emphasis on home border security.Put troops where they belong.

[Thumper1960]

Of course, there can be no doubt that Mexican military assisst illegals in crossing the border. Fox has repeatedly proclaimed hid belief that there should be an open border. Fox has repeatedly decried actions taken against illegals. There can be no doubt that Mexico has a policy of unrestrained emigration of illegals to the US. As for drug-running.....the Mexican military is so corrupt, there can't be any question of there, too, being a concerted effort to introduce drugs into the US. To claim otherwise is to be a fool.

[Uncle Bill]

Anybody that thinks the Mexican military and police are trying to bust drug-trafficking rings must be smoking or snorting some really good stuff.

Mexican official confirms border crossings
"An official at the Embassy of Mexico in Washington, D.C., who asked that his name not be used, has confirmed to Human Events that Mexican military personnel or law enforcement officers crossed the U.S. border – without authorization – 23 times in 2001.

The official was confirming the claim of Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., chairman of the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus, who said in a May 1 press release there had been 23 incursions by Mexican authorities."

18 U.S.-Trained Mexican Pilots Arrested for Cocaine Smuggling

News Briefs
Staff
October 1997

Eighteen Mexican pilots were caught September 1 at a Mexico city airport smuggling nearly 165 pounds of cocaine in a government-owned plane. The pilots were trained in the U.S. to read sophisticated radar used to track planes bringing drug shipments into Mexico from South and Central America. The training was part of a program in which the U.S. government gave Mexico $8 million to further anti-drug efforts (Tracey Eaton, "Mexican agents accused of using plane to smuggle cocaine," Dallas Morning News, September 5, 1997; Andrew Downie, "Drug smugglers learned radar in U.S., paper says," Houston Chronicle, September 5, 1997, p. 22A).
Source

President Fox Guarding Narco Hen House

"In September of last year, I welcomed my good friend, the President of Mexico, to the White House. Standing together on the South Lawn, President Fox and I spoke of building a hemisphere of freedom and prosperity and progress."
George W. Bush - Source

Bush Will Not Stop Afghan Opium Trade

How long is this going to take Jorge?

Click Me:

Clinton Administration Shuts Down U.S. Drug Probe On Top Mexican Official

Snorting Your Way To The Top

Mexican Military Rife With Drug Corruption

News Briefs
Staff
August 1997

Mexican Defense Ministry officials acknowledged recently that 34 military personnel have been accused of drug-related crimes during 1997. Several documents leaked to the Mexican newspaper Procesco indicate the existence of widespread corruption within the military [citing "the large number of personnel involved in drug trafficking"] ("Alleged drug ties of Mexican general probed," Houston Chronicle, July 28, 1997, p. A1; Reuters, "Mexico's Military Tied To Traffickers," San Francisco Chronicle, July 28, 1997, p. A11; Andrew Downie, "Mexico says 34 in military accused of drug crimes," Houston Chronicle, July 29, 1997, p. A8; "2 Generals Reported Held in Drug Theft," Los Angeles Times, August 6, 1997, p. A4).

A six-year investigation within the Defense Ministry showed ties between military officers and drug lords. Procesco said two generals, two colonels, and three lieutenant-colonels protected and accepted gifts from Ernesto Foncesca Carillo and Rafael Caro Quintero, two "drug lords" who are in jail for drug-trafficking. At least 10 generals and 22 other officers are under investigation for similar crimes.

Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo has been expanding the role of the military in fighting the anti-drug effort, in large part because of extensive law enforcement corruption (For background information, see "Mexican Drug Czar Fired" NewsBriefs, March-April 1997.)

"Evidence suggests that drug corruption will move from one institution to the other, and that corruption will overwhelm the Mexican military long before the military curtails the drug trade. The corruption might also undermine civilian control of the military at precisely the time that democratization if taking hold in Mexico," wrote Eva Bertram, a policy analyst, and Kenneth E. Sharpe, professor of political science at Swarthmore College, in an commentary in the Los Angeles Times. They added, "The mix of huge drug profits and the small salaries of [Mexican] police and military officials make it rational for counternarcotics forces to 'trade' their enforcement capability for a share of the profits." Bertram and Sharpe, who are co-authors of Drug War Politics: The Price of Denial (University of California Press, Berkeley, CA) (reviewed in NewsBriefs, Summer 1996), conclude: "The drive to corrupt is, to a disturbing degree, fueled by U.S. [anti-drug] enforcement strategies and by Americans' continued demand for drugs ... " (Eva Bertram and Kenneth E. Sharpe, "U.S. Policy Corrupting Mexico Army," Los Angeles Times (Washington Edition), August 13, 1997, p. A2).

Mexican "Drug Czar Fired, Charged With Drug Corruption
"Gen. Jose de Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo, Mexico's highest ranking anti-drug official, was fired and arrested on charges that he accepted bribes in exchange for protecting a high-level Mexican drug trafficker ten weeks after he was appointed.

...U.S. officials did not have contact with the drug czar, believing he was sick. ...Gen. Barry McCaffrey, director of the White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy, called Gutierrez "an honest man" and "a guy of absolute unquestioned integrity." Eric Rubin, spokesman for the White House National Security Council, said, "It's one thing not to know he was corrupt, but it's another thing not to even know that he's been [under investigation] for two weeks." One senior U.S. law enforcement official said, "This points to a major intelligence community failure."

Despite chronic drug corruption in Mexico, a decline in cocaine seizures and an increase in opium poppy production in Mexico, and an admission by President Clinton that Mexico is the "main transit and distribution hub for drugs," the Administration certified Mexico on February 26 as "fully cooperating" with the United States in the global anti-drug effort."

Defense Secretary Perry Sees Greater Role for Military in Mexico's Counternarcotics Efforts

MEXICO: Anti-Drug Journalists and 8th Drug Prosecutor Murdered

Mexican Drug Gangs Terrorize Texas Ranchers

Mexican Corruption Condoned at Highest Level, World Policy Institute Says

Top Drug Cartels Penetrating Mexican Government, Judiciary at All Levels

Congressman Says Mexican Drug Cartels Hiring Ex-Green Berets

Links Among Mexican Government, Economy and Drug Traffickers; Alleges U.S. Aware of Traffickers' Influence

Cocaine Continues to Pour Through U.S.-Mexican Border

Marijuana Growing in California Increasingly Under Mexican Direction, Police Say

Eduardo Valle, former advisor, Attorney General in Mexico: "Drug trafficking has permeated all political structures and has corrupted federal, state, and local officials. It has deformed the economy. It is a cancer that has generated financial and political dependence, which instead of producing goods, has created serious problems ultimately affecting honest businessmen. The Attorney General's office is unable to eradicate drug trafficking because government structures at all levels are corrupted."

Foolin' them is easy isn't it? Heck yes.

Clinton raped Juanita Broaddrick, not once, but twice

[Brownie74]

Good post Uncle Bill.

[Marine Inspector]

Mr. Williams seems more knowledgeable and/or honest than Mr. Tancredo.

Unfortunately, Mr. Williams is a major reason for the lack of enforcement on the border. In any INS restructuring, he must be one of the first to go. Just ask anyone in BP.

[citizen]

bump - "Shoot to Kill" would stop this invasion

[RightWhale]

How about using the famous GPS and also marking the border more visibly?

[Joe Hadenuf]

Another attempt at damage control and to minimize the issue? What a surprise!

[Luis Gonzalez]

The administrations of both countries enjoy a level of raport seldom before achieved, and the person who works the area on a daily basis turns in a candid and level-headed report on the situation. However, we are asked to believe that Señor Tancredo, after casually visiting the area for a few hours (if that long), and who is on an obvious personal mission of pandering for the votes of people who are truly concerned about the border situation, has magically defined the problem, and divined not only the true intentions of the soldiers, but can also tell that they were in fact not lost.

Dionne warwick just landed in jail in Miami for trying to sneak a few joints through in her lipstick case. Looks like the Psychic Friends Network needs a new spokeperson, and Tancredo appears to be far more qualified than Dionne...after all, she should have known not to try and sneak the doobies through, and he can, by looking out the window of an air-conditioned SUV, divine what went on in the border days and weeks before.

[RickyJ]

I have no idea why Bush continues to think that Mexicans are our friends. Mexicans generally don't like Americans even though we continue to bail them out of financial trouble.

By not securing our borders and enforcing our immigration laws Bush has essentially invited terrorist to attack us again.

[Askel5]

Thanks Uncle Bill!

[TADSLOS]

The movie "The Wild Bunch" with William Holden and Ernest Borgnine comes to mind...