Pubdate: Fri, 20 Jan 2006
Source: San Diego Union Tribune (CA)
Copyright: 2006 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.uniontrib.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/386
Note: Does not print LTEs from outside it's circulation area.
Authors: Anna Cearley, and Leslie Berestein

WAR ON DRUGS SPARKS INCURSIONS, OFFICIALS SAY

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.

Some proponents of stronger border enforcement say the incursions are 
an indication that powerful drug smugglers have compromised some 
members of the Mexican military.

Earlier this week, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said 
there are an average of about 20 incidents a year in which Mexican 
police or military might set foot on U.S. soil, but that "a 
significant number of those are innocent things . . . because they're 
not aware of exactly where the line is."

Chertoff's comments were in reaction to a newspaper report that the 
Mexican military had crossed 216 times into the United States since 
1996. The story was published in the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin of Ontario.

The statistics were attributed to a Homeland Security report, 
although a U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman said 
yesterday he had not seen the report.

Even though the potential for violence is high in such encounters, 
most ended with Mexican forces retreating, said T.J. Bonner, the San 
Diego-based president of the National Border Patrol Council, the 
Border Patrol agents' union.

Bonner said he didn't have statistics for incursions along the 
California border, and recalled one major incident six years ago. In 
October 2000, two Border Patrol agents encountered armed men in 
military-style uniforms about eight miles east of the Otay Mesa Port 
of Entry, Bonner said.

According to Bonner, the agents came under fire and the assailants 
pursued them into United States before backing off. Mexican 
authorities later confirmed a military group was operating in the 
area, but said it didn't step into U.S. territory. U.S. authorities 
later said there wasn't evidence the agents were shot at, and closed 
the case despite criticism of downplaying the incident.

In July 2000, Mexican officials decried what they called a deliberate 
incursion on the part of two Border Patrol officials, who crossed 
into Mexican territory to detain individuals; U.S. officials said the 
agents thought they were still on U.S. soil.

Alberto Lozano, a spokesman for the Mexican consulate in San Diego, 
noted that the consulate had still not seen a copy of any report 
detailing Mexican incursions.

"The Mexican military has never deliberately stepped onto U.S. soil, 
and every incident or supposed incursion has been investigated and 
clarified," he said.

Meanwhile, politicians in favor of stricter border enforcement have 
taken the opportunity to promote various security proposals. U.S. 
Rep. Rick Renzi, R-Ariz., took to television and radio yesterday to 
promote an amendment calling for increased aerial surveillance that 
he made to the recently passed HR 4437 border security bill.

"Our borders are under attack by sophisticated organizations that 
have no qualms about firing upon our Border Patrol units," he stated 
in a news release Wednesday.

Though the Mexican military hasn't traditionally been involved in 
combating drug trafficking, Mexico has turned to the military over 
the past decade because it's considered less corruptible than police agencies.

That isn't always true, however. For example, in 1997 a top Mexican 
general who went on to lead an anti-drug group was linked to a major 
drug cartel.

Bonner, the Border Patrol union chief, said he suspected that many of 
the incursions are drug-related. "Our agents are convinced that they 
are facilitating the entry of drugs, whether they are rogue units or 
recognized units," Bonner said.

Bonner said he believes anyone patrolling the border has a clear idea 
of where the boundaries are. Shirk, the Trans-Border Institute 
director, and Clark, the human rights activist, disagreed.

"It's not a very clear line drawn in the sand," Shirk said. "It goes 
through valleys and over mountains and across vast stretches of 
desert. There has been a number of incursions - in both directions, I 
think it's important to say - across this line."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom