Mexican Military Holds Border Patrol at Gunpoint Inside U.S.
April 02, 2014 - Judicial Watch
In the latest Mexican military incursion into the United States, two
heavily armed camouflaged soldiers from Mexico actually crossed 50 yards inside
Arizona and held American Border Patrol agents at gunpoint in a tense
confrontation.
Armed with assault-style weapons, the Mexican soldiers retreated back south
after a 35-minute standoff as if nothing ever happened and the Obama
administration just let it slide. The unbelievable foray was made public by a
mainstream newspaper that obtained government documents with alarming details of
the January 26 incident. Specifically, the paper cites the Border Patrol Foreign
Military Incursion report and a separate letter from U.S. Customs and Border
Protection Commissioner R. Gil Kerlikowske, an Obama appointee who was recently
sworn in.
The Mexican soldiers were spotted by a Border Patrol agent entering the
U.S. about 2.5 miles west of Sasabe Arizona shortly before 9 a.m. A second
federal agent positively identified the two individuals in tan, digital
camouflage uniforms, on foot traveling westbound, on the United States side of
the International Boundary Fence Line, according to the report obtained by the
newspaper. The Mexicans misidentified themselves to U.S. Border agents and
claimed to be pursuing drug smugglers, the government documents say.
Kerlikowske admits that the intruders were "confirmed members of the
Mexican military" but he asserts that U.S. border officials determined that no
further action was necessary involving the matter. Like a loyal Obama lapdog
Kerlikowske claims military incursions from Mexico are infrequent though he was
apparently forced to admit that there were 23 incidents in the Tucson and Yuma
sectors of Arizona since 2010, including three this fiscal year alone.
The latest incursion was one of the most serious in recent years, according
to U.S. officials that apparently didn't want their name printed in the
newspaper. The same officials, clearly insiders privy to information that's not
made public, seem to indicate that Mexican soldiers aren't chasing drug
smugglers but rather protecting cartels as they transport their cargo into the
United States through the treacherous desert.
Not surprisingly, Mexico's government long denied that its soldiers were
involved in the January incursion and initially suggested the men were drug
smugglers somehow clad in military uniforms. When reporters confronted Mexican
officials with the evidence the embassy changed its story to this: "Those
individuals were part of a counter-narcotics operation, which had taken place a
few minutes prior on the Mexican side of the border," said Ariel Moutsatsos,
minister for press and public affairs at the Mexican Embassy. "The two members
of the Mexican army did not see any sign notifying them that they were crossing
the border."
The official version from the U.S. Embassy in Mexico is that incursions
happen and that they are "unintentional." No worries, says an American Embassy
spokesperson quoted in the story, because U.S. officials work closely with their
Mexican counterparts to ensure respect for the border and to return them quickly
to Mexican territory. "The bilateral collaboration in these incidents testifies
to the strength of our security cooperation," the U.S. Embassy official
said.
Judicial Watch has done a lot of work in this area and has obtained records
from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that show Mexican military
incursions occur quite often and go unpunished by the U.S. For instance, the DHS
documents reveal 226 incursions by Mexican government personnel into the U.S.
occurred between 1996 and 2005. In 2007 alone, 25 incursions occurred along the
U.S.-Mexico border involving Mexican military and/or law enforcement. The
problem has only gotten worse over the years, according to the records obtained
in the course of JW's ongoing investigation.
A few years ago police in Phoenix Arizona reported that three members of
Mexico's army conducted a violent home invasion and assassination operation that
killed one person and littered a neighborhood with gunfire. The Mexican military
officers were hired by one of that country's renowned drug cartels to carry out
the deadly operation, according to Phoenix police officials, who confirmed the
soldiers were armed with AR-15 assault rifles and dressed in military tactical
gear. An official police memorandum describes it as a "drug rip," a tactical
assault in which approximately 100 rounds were
fired.###
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