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 Editorials | Issues | November 2006 
Mexico Criticizes U.S. Border Patrol Agents
 Louie Gilot - El Paso Times
| | A U.S. Border Patrol agent looks at the Rio Grande river with Mexico on the left and the U.S. on the right, in Laredo, Texas. (Rick Wilking/Reuters) |
Mexican officials are upset that U.S. Border Patrol agents apparently crossed the border into Mexico without permission while chasing drug smugglers last week.
On Monday night, the Mexican attorney general's office, known as the PGR, announced it was investigating the "probable incursion of North American police into Mexican territory."
The incident occurred Thursday afternoon when Border Patrol agents chased a marijuana-loaded pickup that got stuck in the Rio Grande near Fabens. Police officials from the Mexican village of Guadalupe Distrito Bravos said that when they arrived at the scene, they found the agents on the Mexican side of the river and had a brief standoff.
Jose Luis Delgado, a police officer in Guadalupe, said he and two colleagues responded to a report of an abandoned drug-laden truck with their guns drawn. "When we arrived (the U.S. agents) drew their weapons," Delgado said.
The PGR said it was told by the police officers that when they arrived at the scene, they saw about 15 Border Patrol agents, who pointed at them with rifles and were attempting to hook up the pickup to chains to pull it.
Border Patrol officials said they were investigating. They said agents retrieved 300 pounds of marijuana from the truck before Mexican officials took over.
The city of Juárez issued a statement "condemning that authorities from other countries enter a national territory without respect for sovereignty."
City official Jorge Alvarez Compeán said Mexico should formally complain to the United States.
Even though the intent was to stop drug smuggling, "The end does not justify the action," Alvarez said.
Guadalupe police met with Mexican federal police in Juárez on Monday to discuss the incident and review photographs allegedly taken at the scene, federal police officials said. State police said they took out 1,441 pounds of marijuana from the truck, a 2005 Chevrolet that was reported stolen in El Paso in May. The truck's two occupants fled into Mexico.
In January, Hudspeth County Sheriff Arvin West accused Mexico of incursion into U.S. territory after an armed standoff over another drug-filled vehicle stuck in the river near Sierra Blanca.
Mexico denied West's accusations that Mexican military were involved in that standoff.
Louie Gilot may be reached at lgilot@elpasotimes.com; 546-6131. The Associated Press contributed to this story. |
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