Are Mexican Soldiers
Involved in Border Area Crime?
By Allan Wall
Among the many problems on the U.S.-Mexican border is that
of reported Mexican military incursions onto the United States side of the border. These
incidents raise disturbing questions about U.S.-Mexican relations and the two nations’ wars on the drug cartels.
The evidence indicates that elements of the Mexican military
are aiding drug smugglers on the border.
Such incursions have been reported for years by U.S. law
enforcement officers and Mexican illegal aliens.
Both governments would prefer not to acknowledge the problem. When pressured, the United States downplays it, while Mexican officials deny the incidents,
or attribute them to accidental crossings or drug smugglers dressed as Mexican soldiers.
Much of the U.S.-Mexican border is unguarded, trackless desert.
So it’s not surprising that from time to time a Mexican army vehicle or patrol might take a wrong turn and wind up north
of the border.
Doubtless there have been some accidental crossings. But
they wouldn’t account for the bulk of the incidents, especially considering the reported behavior of these soldiers,
which is sometimes aggressive.
As for the “smugglers disguised as soldiers”
argument, there may be some cases of that too. But if that were the principal
explanation, it could imply that (a) the Mexican Army can’t secure its materiel stores; or (b) it can’t control
the border area, which is hardly reassuring.
A U.S. Department of Homeland Security document in 2006 reported
216 such incursions from 1996-2006. There may be many more.
To begin with, why are there so many Mexican soldiers on
the border anyway? Is the border being militarized?
If the United States put a Boy Scout with a water gun on
the border, Mexican politicians would decry the “militarization of the border.”
Nevertheless, the Mexican side of the border is already militarized.
There are 11 Mexican military garrisons on the Mexican side
of the U.S.-Mexican border. Moving from west to east, these garrisons are located
at Tecate, San Luis Rio Colorado, Sonoyta, Agua Prieta, Ciudad Juarez, Ojinaga, Palomas, Ciudad Acuņa, Piedras Negras, Nuevo
Laredo and Matamoros.
By the canons of international law there’s nothing
wrong with it either. According to the treaties of Guadalupe-Hidalgo (1848) and the Gadsden Purchase (1853), which established
the current U.S.-Mexico border, each country reserves the right to fortify any part of its side of the border.
Nature abhors a vacuum. Both governments have allowed their
common border to become a rather lawless place. I was almost attacked on the border (in an urban area) and literally made
a run for the border to escape. Robbery, rape and murder are standard fare on
the border, along with the drug smuggling, illegal immigration, and the hundreds of illegal aliens who perish each year on
the border.
Add to the mix corrupt Mexican soldiers aiding drug smugglers
and you have a real prescription for disaster.
Traditionally, the Mexican military has been regarded as
less corrupt than local Mexican police. That’s why President Felipe Calderon is using the military as the spearhead
in his war on the cartels, and many young soldiers have died fighting drug cartels.
Nevertheless, the military has its corruption too. Plenty
of military officers, including generals, have been busted for drug corruption over the years. And that’s only the ones
who’ve been caught.
The highest-profile case was that of Mexico’s anti-cartel
czar, General Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo, who seemed to be doing such an effective job of nabbing drug traffickers. It turned
out though, that he was going after one drug cartel while in the service of another. The general was arrested, convicted and
sentenced to 71 years in the hoosegow. (That was back in 1997.)
It’s also a known fact that deserters from the underpaid
ranks of the Mexican military (which has a high desertion rate) have joined the cartels, including some crack troops trained
by the U.S.A.
So it’s not at all farfetched to assert that Mexican
military elements on the border are working for the cartels in smuggling operations. In fact, it would be surprising if such
things weren’t going on.
Unsurprisingly, ugly and dangerous incidents involving intruding
Mexican soldiers and U.S. Border Patrol (and other law enforcement) agents have already occurred. Border Patrol agents have already been fired upon in such incidents (and they are usually outgunned by
Mexican soldiers crossing the border).
It’s not a good situation. Yet neither government seems to want to do anything about it.
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Allan Wall, a MexiData.info columnist, recently returned from a tour of duty in Iraq. He
currently resides in Mexico, where he has lived since 1991. He can be reached via e-mail at allan39@prodigy.net.mx.
