| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"Ms Liberty" |
| Date: |
28 Jan 2006 01:44:33 PM |
| Object: |
U.S. lawmaker calls for troops after clash with Mexican smugglers |
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisobispo/news/nation/137031
74.htm
Posted on Tue, Jan. 24, 2006
U.S. lawmaker calls for troops after clash with Mexican smugglers
BY DAVID MCLEMORE
The Dallas Morning News
DALLAS - A West Texas standoff along the Rio Grande between U.S.
law enforcement officers and heavily armed Mexican drug smugglers
in military-style clothing prompted congressional demands Tuesday
for an international investigation and a call for deployment of
U.S. troops to the border.
The incident, which occurred Monday on U.S. soil at an isolated
river crossing about 50 miles east of El Paso, Texas, is the
latest incident involving armed incursions along the U.S. border
with Mexico.
And it comes less than a week after Homeland Security Secretary
Michael Chertoff called a California newspaper's account of such
border incursions "overblown."
The incident Monday involved an encounter between two Hudspeth
County Sheriff's Department deputies and three Department of
Public Safety troopers and 10 heavily armed drug smugglers.
A spokesman for Mexico's Foreign Ministry said Mexican military
personnel had nothing to do with the incident and suggested the
trespassers may have been drug traffickers wearing military-style
gear.
The incident began on Interstate 10 near the Sierra Blanca
checkpoint when DPS troopers began chasing three westbound SUVs
believed to be carrying marijuana.
When the SUV drivers saw that they were being followed, they made
a U-turn and headed south toward the river to an area known as
Neely's Crossing, said Rick Glancey, executive director of the
Texas Border Sheriffs Coalition.
At the crossing, one of the SUVs drove across the shallow river
into Mexico. A second one got stuck in the muddy banks. And as
the Texas deputies watched, a military-style Humvee attempted to
pull it from the mud, while several armed men in green uniforms
fanned out around it, Glancey said.
When the Humvee failed to extricate the truck, a group of men in
civilian clothes walked into the ankle-deep river, removed what
appeared to be bales of marijuana and hauled them to the Mexican
side. They then set the truck, a Ford Expedition, ablaze.
The third vehicle, a Cadillac Escalade, was abandoned on the U.S.
side with a flat tire as the driver escaped on foot. Deputies
found 1,447 pounds of marijuana inside.
"What this latest incidence underscores is the necessity of
increased support for local law enforcement to aid improving our
border security," said Glancey. "If this doesn't open D.C.'s
eyes, I don't know what will."
Monday's incident was not the first face-to-face confrontation
for Hudspeth County deputies.
In November, deputies responded to assist Border Patrol agents at
the border town of Fort Hancock, Texas, where they encountered
six men in military uniforms attempting to carry a load of
marijuana over the river.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials said Tuesday they
have launched an inquiry into the Monday incident and asked
Mexican authorities for a thorough investigation and full answer
on what happened.
"(Customs) is coordinating closely with the appropriate federal,
state and local authorities," said Kristi Clemens, Customs'
assistant commissioner for public affairs. "The U.S. government
is also discussing the matter with the government of Mexico and
is asking for a thorough investigation and response. We take very
seriously and investigate fully any alleged incident of criminal
activity, threats against our agents or possible incursions."
Texas Gov. Rick Perry also has ordered an investigation,
spokeswoman Kathy Walt said.
U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., a frequent critic of the
administration's border security efforts, called Tuesday for the
federal government and the governments of southern border states
to immediately deploy troops to the U.S.-Mexico border in light
of what he termed "recent armed assistance Mexico's military has
given to drug smugglers."
"Our border has literally turned into a war zone with foreign
military personnel challenging our laws and our sovereignty,"
Tancredo said.
"The only way to deal with this dangerous situation is to tap the
resources of our own military," Tancredo said. "I call on
President Bush and the governors of border states to immediately
deploy military personnel to defend our borders against the
Mexican military."
U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee
on Terrorism and Homeland Security, called on Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice to initiate a formal investigation on the
reported border crossings and to begin a dialogue with Mexican
officials to prevent further occurrences.
"These illegal incursions are a violation of our sovereignty and
pose a significant danger to U.S. law enforcement officials and
citizens near the border - especially if all parties involved are
armed. The potential for violence is significant."
Sen. Kyl noted that the Department of Homeland Security released
figures that indicate that there have been 231 documented
incursions along the 2,000-mile border with Mexico since 1996.
Of those, 63 in that nine-year period occurred in Arizona and 28
occurred along the Texas border, according to Homeland Security.
In each instance, U.S. agents at the local level asked Mexican
federal police and army officials to clarify what happened.
Many included accidental forays by legitimate Mexican authorities
across a poorly defined border in rough and isolated country
while in pursuit of drug dealers. The Texas-Mexico border,
however, is delineated by the Rio Grande River.
Investigators have long documented that Mexican drug gangs often
wear camouflage clothing and carry military-style automatic
weapons.
But Tuesday's request for a Mexican government response
significantly ups the ante, federal officials said.
In Mexico, officials said the National Defense Ministry has begun
an investigation of the incident and launched a search for the
vehicles identified by photographs taken by Hudspeth County
deputies.
Hudspeth County Chief Deputy Mike Doyal said that men dressed as
Mexican soldiers manned what looked like .50-caliber machine guns
mounted on vehicles about 200 yards inside the U.S. border during
the incident.
In Mexico, a ministry spokesman said that the Army's Ciudad
Juarez garrison does not maintain Humvees with mounted .50-
caliber machine guns.
"It cannot be ruled out that said actions are designed as much to
harm the image of our armed forces as the bilateral cooperation
between Mexico and the United States in the fight against
organized crime and, in particular, narcotrafficking," a foreign
ministry spokesman said.
--
Ms Liberty - United States of America
50% of U.S. households own a gun but few people ever practice
with them. Your gun is not a lucky rabbit's foot that will bestow
protection on you, just by keeping it around. If you own one, you
have a moral obligation to yourself to learn safety, get training
and learn how to use it, then stay in practice so you don't
forget and get rusty. Take as much training as you can afford and
practice regularly. After all, you are the militia.
.
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