“Mexican Military” Incident

A federal investigation does not indicate that a highly publicized border showdown in a Texas county involved Mexican military, according to federal officials.

At a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing Wednesday, Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said that facts did not bear out Mexican military involvement in a Jan. 23 incident in Hudspeth County, Texas, where men in military uniforms appeared to assist drug smugglers on the border.

“Right now we’re looking at it as primarily a narcotics investigation, so we can identify those involved in the incident,” Marcy M. Forman, ICE’s director of investigations said.

An ICE spokesman said Wednesday that “thus far we have not been able to substantiate or support a conclusion that Mexican military was involved in the conclusion.”

Those statements reflect the Mexican government’s contention that the men involved used Humvees and uniforms that the Mexican military no longer uses in the area. They has also alleged that a local gang leader owned Humvees similar to the one seen in the videotaped encounter.

It is not the first time DHS has expressed doubt that the incident involved actual Mexican military personnel. At a Jan. 16 budget hearing, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said that “the Border Patrol has reviewed an enhanced video that the Humvee appears to be an older style of Humvee that is not used by the Mexican military and . . . this is consistent with the fact that drug cartels do use military-style clothing and equipment.”

T.J. Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council union, said that the apparent subterfuge does not absolve the Mexican government of blame.

“The Mexican government cannot avoid responsibility for the actions of these renegade groups by simply denying involvement,” Bonner said in prepared testimony. “By allowing them to operate with impunity along its northern border, Mexico bears some of the responsibility for their actions.”

When asked by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., if the Border Patrol had set up a joint operating unit with Mexico’s border personnel, Border Patrol Chief David V. Aguilar said that such a program is still in “informal stages.” But on the whole, he gave an overall positive assessment to the state of cooperation between Mexico and the United States on border security issues.

Source: CQ Homeland Security, Mar. 1, 2006

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