Mexican troops cross border 216 times in last 10 years helping traffickers

[dusmcj]

per the Inland Empire Daily Bulletin:

http://www.dailybulletin.com/ci_3430581

I think it's time to make Sr. Fox look really stupid. The oligarchies of Central and South America clearly still exist, and have enough money to have freedom of choice about whether to continue functioning as tribalist banana republics (what else are preening rich good for nothings who style themselves as aristocracy except a (pretty worthless) tribe ?) or join the modern world with its emphasis on eliminating corruption, maximizing transparency and creating equitable egalitarian societies which give all its citizens genuine access to opportunity for betterment at a rate greater than the urine drip of neoliberal trickle-down.

They've made their choice clear. Since this latest incursion involved Mexican Army Humvees moving pot across the Rio Grande and reaching 200 yards into the US side of the border, with crew-served machine guns set up and aimed at responding Border Patrol, I suggest that the way to help Mr. Fox understand the situation that he and his ilk find themselves in is to leave the smoking wreckage of a few Humvees along with the smoking corpses of the Mexican soldiers manning them and the traffickers they were protecting, on US soil, the next time one of these incursions occurs.

At that point, Mr. Fox will be in a position where he can either clearly and publicly distance himself from any support, tacit or otherwise, of traffickers of narcotics and people across the border, and take clear public action to address the situation, which would consist basically of standing aside and waving as US military forces conduct joint operations with Mexican military units on the Mexican side of the border, in substantial numbers, to eliminate the mafiosi scourge of traffickers plaguing the Mexican border states. Or not, at which point the US military operations would take place, just without a joint ops aspect with the Mexican military.

We here in the US have the special task of removing oligarchic parasites, of a kind very familiar in the western hemisphere, from power without creating either civil war or allowing them to institute a police state. Those nations emerging from colonial oppression have a similar choice to make, to eliminate those of their own public who were elevated to power and who have become largely indistinguishable from the old colonizers. Some among them are already doing so. Enough time has already been spent debating historical fault and obligation. It's time for the rest to follow suit.

[toymachines]

1. seems like those mexicans have balls

[dusmcj]

2. of pot ? I thought that came in bags, opium in balls.

I don't really think it's cool that a bunch of mafiosi with the resources of a modern military are doing what they want inside our borders. We have our own brand of such vermin, we don't need an additional population from abroad. Balls is leaving the mob in ruins and making the world a safe place for kids to grow into healthy adults in in modern nations which cooperate, not cheering on further damaging of our poor country. I don't do that tribal/group shit.

[toymachines]

21. oh i agree

I dont think its good that they are just coming in and doing this shit, but they do have guts to do it.

[tyedyeto]

3. And you know this is a fact when you live nowhere close to the border?

I live close to it. I have never seen any Federales on our side of the border. And I have traveled on some off the beaten paths (ie: dirt roads) very close to the border. Show me the proof somewhere other than a repug newspaper's editorial.

[Horse with no Name]

6. Not only that

With the potential of an international incident, you would think it would be front page El Paso Times.
It's nowhere to be found.
http://www.elpasotimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage

[tyedyeto]

9. Or down here in southern Arizona.

Tucson Citizen front page today:

http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/

Nada

[dusmcj]

20. here ya go

http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/news/national/011906_mexican_military

[Kali]

8. I am on slow dial up

but google the Tucson weekly and then search the archives for articles by Leo Banks - I know there is at least one froma a couple months ago that mentions a crossing by Federales.

I have seen them right at the fence where the San Pedro crosses into AZ, I expect they come over all the time...what would stop them?

[tyedyeto]

11. At the fence... they are allowed that but

have you seen them beyond the fence? I have seen them at the border also, but I have never seen them in US territory.

[Kali]

12. I will look for the article tomorow

No I don't spend too much time on the line - it's bad enough 50 miles north. But I distinctly remember reading about an incident west of Nogales and pretty sure some others in the same area....

[Horse with no Name]

4. Since this happened in a fairly large city

Do you have a legitimate news source?

[mike_c]

5. the free mexican air force is flying tonight....

Can't find all the lyrics, unfortunately.

[dusmcj]

7. text from Daily Bulletin article

Mexican military Humvees were towing what appeared to be thousands of pounds of marijuana across the border into the United States, said Chief Deputy Mike Doyal of the Hudspeth County Sheriff's Department.

Mexican Army troops had several mounted machine guns on the ground more than 200 yards inside the U.S. border -- near Neely's Crossing, about 50 miles east of El Paso -- when Border Patrol agents called for backup. Hudspeth County deputies and Texas Highway patrol officers arrived shortly afterward, Doyal said.

"It's been so bred into everyone not to start an international incident with Mexico that it's been going on for years,'' Doyal said. "When you're up against mounted machine guns, what can you do? Who wants to pull the trigger first? Certainly not us.''

An FBI spokeswoman confirmed the incident happened at 2:15 p.m. Pacific time.

"Bad guys in three vehicles ended up on the border,'' said Andrea Simmons, a spokeswoman with the FBI's El Paso office. "People with Humvees, who appeared to be with the Mexican Army, were involved with the three vehicles in getting them back across.''

Simmons said the FBI was not involved and referred inquiries to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

and

Citing a Jan. 15 story in the Daily Bulletin, Reps. David Dreier, R-Glendora, and Duncan Hunter, R-San Diego, last week asked the House Judiciary Committee, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, the House Homeland Security Committee and the House International Relations Committee to investigate the incursions. The story focused on a Department of Homeland Security document reporting 216 incursions by Mexican soldiers during the past 10 years and a map with the seal of the president's Office of National Drug Control Policy, both of which were given to the newspaper.

You know, when you cite FBI spokespeople and US Representatives, and go on primetime cable news to tell about your story, the costs of lying about it get a little high. Hence I don't have that much motivation to suspect that this is fabricated bullshit. Republican paper or not.

You may not like the social politics of most of the people asserting that there's a problem at the border. That doesn't mean that there isn't a problem at the border. Or that the powerholders you think those people support aren't as much their enemy as ours. Waking up to unpleasant political realities and putting 2 and 2 together to eliminate contradictions from your picture of the world and make it consistent doesn't happen quickly. Give them time.

[K-W]

10. The Latin American oligarchichies exist because they serve US interests.

Because the US doesnt really care if the Mexican army is corrupt as long as enforces for compliant regimes who support the mexican oligarchy that has deals with the US oligarchy.

[dusmcj]

14. quite true, but so what ?

surely not all members of the oligarchy are blinded by the power they get from serving US interests, and surely not all members of the Mexican establishment are from the corners that are beholden to the US or the cartels. Fires start with a spark, are you claiming that there is no one with independence, honesty and patriotism left in Mexico who is also in a position to counteract the corruptos and the apparatchiks ? Who gives a fuck if a US sugar daddy is always waiting on the corner offering a handjob - are you claiming that there isn't a person of importance left in Mexico who doesn't let himself be serviced ?

[K-W]

17. So that refutes this article,

Im really not sure how your post relates to mine at all. of course all members of the oligarchy are blinded by the power they have, if they werent, they wouldnt be members of the oligarchy, ideological conformity is pretty much a prerequisite for being in the ruling class. But I dont think I mentioend anything about that in my post. Like any other country the people with power in Mexico are the people who serve the most powerful interests in Mexico. To the extent that the people in mexico struggle for power they will have some representation, but at the end of the day, just like in the US the lions share of power belongs to wealthiest players at the table.

Of course there are people in Mexico of importance who challenge the status quo and work for progress. And I certainly never made any claims about this in my post so I struggle to understand where you are coming from with these loaded questions.

[High Plains]

13. Border law enforcement experts beg to differ...

Looks like this story is hyped-up xenophobic crap conveniently timed to influence congressional action on immigration and border security.

Here's some stuff from the San Diego Union-Tribune http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/tijuana/20060120-9999-7m20border.html


War on drugs sparks incursions, officials say

By Anna Cearley and Leslie Berestein
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITERS
January 20, 2006

An increased Mexican military presence along the border over the past decade could be making it more likely that Mexican and U.S. authorities are crossing paths, according to several border law enforcement experts.

"The military in recent years is being drawn into the war on drugs," said David Shirk, director of the Trans-Border Institute, based at the University of San Diego.

Victor Clark, a Tijuana-based human rights activist who follows drug trends, said "there is more militarization along the border because the U.S. is pressuring to have more there."

In recent days, reports of incursions along the border by Mexican authorities have caused a media and political frenzy, despite assertions from Homeland Security officials that incursions by authorities on both sides are, though not frequent, fairly common.

"It's important to put this in perspective," said Mike Friel, a Washington spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which oversees the Border Patrol. "Incursions do happen on both sides, but for the most part they are infrequent. Generally these incursions are situations that happen when authorities are pursuing criminals, usually in unmarked stretches of the border. These reports of the incursions are being overblown."

Friel added that criminals also have been known to pose as Mexican authorities.

<snip>

Much, much more at link, including the Mexican government's flat denial that its troops ever intentionally crossed the border.

[Horse with no Name]

15. What a surprise!

Not. Good catch.:thumbsup:

[dusmcj]

16. I'd like to see refutations of specific claimed incidents

and I frankly don't give a fuck what the Mexican government says. If they're not in league with the traffickers, they turn a blind eye to them as a way of equalizing the power relationship with the US.

"Yes they were inside the fence and yes they were escorting a marijuana shipment and yes they had their belt-feds loaded and pointed at the Border Patrol and yes there was a standoff. But they didn't mean it." Doesn't cut it. The US government needs to refute the specific claims about the incursions, or state a plan to address them. The world is not yet a giant corporate exploitation zone where borders have been erased so as to make labor flows more convenient for the holders of capital. And as long as some of us are around, that won't come to pass.

[Czolgosz]

18. If Stinky Kinky Friedman get's elected Texas governor, that will be our

official state-sponsored policy:

"Friedman describes what he calls 'the five generals program.' Give five Mexican generals responsibility for certain portions of the Texas-Mexican border. Each receives $1 million, placed in escrow. 'Every time we catch an illegal coming through his section, we withdraw $5,000. It's cowboy logic, but it's common sense, too,' Friedman says." <http://www.ajc.com/search/content/shared/news/nation/stories/12/NATKINKY1227A_5REP.html>.

[dusmcj]

19. bitchen. I like a 50 to the engine block myself. And policy reform in DC

Not that I've ever had the opportunity to fire a .50 caliber round at an engine block or anything else. But it does seem like a fairly abrupt and conclusive solution to bad people driving cars where they definitely shouldn't. I love the idea of a perpetual motion machine involving dangling the object of lust from a stick attached to the piggy's head - how's that for motivation ? Also, $5K is harsh, man - 200 illegals cross that section of border, and the poor padron is SOL. Harsh, man, harsh. Awwww.