The Recent Border Incursion

Euphoric Reality reports what appears to be troubling news regarding a recent border incident. But we need to keep some perspective.

The incursion into U.S. territory last week by “Mexican gunmen” was not a chance confrontation between the Arizona National Guard and untrained illegal immigrants, but a deliberate “perimeter probe” by an infantry-trained, uniformed Mexican force, officials say.

Okay, but the reports that I've read claim there were only four intruders, so let's not make this look like a Mexican Army invasion, primarily due to this article. via PoliceOne

There are Mexican forces in the area ... fighting drug gangs. They even confiscated weapons from some Mexican police units. I am very much against illegal immigration and for border control issues. But if the Mexican government is actually trying to do something under Calderone, let's be sure of the facts, before we make it worse than it is.

The Tijuana police initially stopped patrolling when their guns were taken, saying it was too dangerous. Most police returned to work without their guns during the weekend. In some cases, officers have been accompanied by armed state police. Others have patrolled in larger numbers than normal. One officer was seen holding a slingshot which he said was for his protection.

Dubbed "Operation Tijuana," the army mobilization to the Mexican border city is the second major military offensive against drug gangs by Calderon, who took office on Dec. 1 promising to crack down on organized crime.

Last month, Calderon sent 7,000 troops to his native state of Michoacan in western Mexico that has been plagued by execution-style killings and beheadings as rival gangs fight over marijuana plantations and smuggling routes.

Comments

[Deon]

Hey, if the Mexican federales are chasing drug dealers, that is good news. But why, then, did the National Guard retreat? And why would the Mexican officials occupy or investigate US land without any kind of an advance warning or, even more importantly, identifying themselves to the American authorities right there before they left?

Not saying that drug enforcement isn't the case (or that US officials weren't aware of it), but it still leaves a few questions.

[Dan Riehl]

Yes it does. But the guard now claims they simply withdrew and observed as per their ROE - they called the border patrol. The men were already back in Mexico. Could be a single patrol that wandered astray. It does happen. They never came within 100 yards of one another supposedly.

[old trooper]

[edit] Cross-border attack on New Mexico
On March 9, 1916, Villa ordered 1,500 (disputed, one official US Army report stated "500 to 700") Mexican raiders, reportedly led by villista general Ramon Banda Quesada, to make a cross-border attack against Columbus, New Mexico, in response to the U.S. government's official recognition of the Carranza regime [8]. They attacked a detachment of the 13th US Cavalry, seized 100 horses and mules, burned the town, killed 10 soldiers and 8 of its residents, and took much ammunition and weaponry. Villa's forces suffered the loss of 80 dead or mortally wounded and 5 captured [9], mostly from US machine gun emplacements [10].

[edit] The Hunt for Pancho Villa (The Punitive Expedition)
Main article: Pancho Villa Expedition
United States' President Woodrow Wilson responded to the Columbus raid by sending 6,000 troops under General John J. Pershing to Mexico to pursue Villa. (Wilson also dispatched several divisions of Army and National Guard troops to protect the southern US border against further raids and counterattacks.) In the U.S., this was known as the Punitive or Pancho Villa Expedition. During the search, the United States launched its first air combat mission with eight airplanes. [11] [12] At the same time Villa was also being sought by Carranza's army. The U.S. expedition was eventually called off after failing to find Villa, and Villa successfully escaped from both armies.

[edit] Later life and assassination
After the Punitive Expedition, Villa remained at large but never regained his former stature or military power. Carranza's loss of Obregon as chief general in 1917, and his preoccupation with the continuing rebellion of the Zapatista and Felicista forces in the south (much closer to Mexico City and perceived as the greater threat), prevented him from applying sufficient military pressure to extinguish the Villa nuisiance. Few of the Chihuahuans who could have informed on Villa were inclined to cooperate with the Carranza regime. Villa's last major raid was on Ciudad Juarez in 1919.

In 1920, Villa negotiated peace with new President Adolfo de la Huerta and ended his revolutionary activity. He went into semi-retirement, with a detachment of 50 of los dorados for protection, at the hacienda of El Canutillo [13]. He was assassinated three years later (1923) in Parral, Chihuahua, in his car. The assassins were never arrested, although a Durango politician, Jesus Salas Barraza, publicly claimed credit. While there is some circumstantial evidence that Obregon or Plutarco Elías Calles was behind the killing, Villa made many enemies over his lifetime, who would have had motives to murder him.[14] Today Villa is remembered by many Mexicans as a folk hero.

In 1926 grave robbers decapitated his corpse. [15] His skull has yet to be found.

Villa's original death mask was hidden at the Radford School in El Paso, Texas until the 1970s, when it was sent to the National Museum of the Revolution in Chihuahua; other museums have ceramic and bronze copies. [16]

The location of the remainder of Villa's corpse is in dispute. It may be in the city cemetery of Parral, Chihuahua [17], or in ChihuahuaCity, or in the Monument of the Revolution in Mexico City [18]. Tombstones for Villa exist in both places. A pawn shop in El Paso, Texas claims to be in possession of Villa's preserved trigger finger.

His final words were reported as "Don't let it end like this. Tell them I said something."

OK.Let be noted.
http://www.onwar.com/aced/nation/may/mexico/fmexicousa1916.htm

Too Proud to fight in WWI, too stupid to secure borders until it was way late.

What does Woodrow Wilson and GWB have in common?
Both were Presidents. Both had Border issues. Both wasted time on "international" World Bodies, the League of Nations and the equally worthless United Nations.

Every mistake the US ever made comes around again to bite US in the Ass.

[Redhead Infidel]

Thanks for the link, Dan.

I hope it was clear from my article that I do indeed think that the uniformed men were Zetas, not official Mexican military (though that's not unheard of, as I also reported). If one reads my entire article, I think I made it quite clear that the identity of the uniformed unit is not yet known, but that I'm partial to the theory that it was mercenaries. In fact, a BP official asked me today why I seem so certain that it was Zetas. He read it very different from you and didn't leap to the assumption that I was making it seem like the Mexican Army. I guess to each his own, eh? :)

[ajacksonian]

If it was official Mexican troops can we expect an apology from their Government?

Diplomatic reparations?

Some help in actually making sure that folks don't trip across the border by mistake?

Otherwise it is an unwarranted violation of US sovereign territory by another Nation. They are all grown up on the other side of the border and do know how to apologize, don't they?

[Phoenix]

AJ,

They're grown-up enough to realize how puerile we are and to take advantage.

Time for us to grow up.

[seekeronos]

Simple solution to all of this, and might be even cheaper than the Wall:

Step 1: An instant death zone on our southern border.

Lay a 300m deep zone of fragmentation mines on our side of the border (antipersonnel interspersed with antivehicle) with hellfire-armed attack helicopters patrolling the zone on an infrequent and irregular basis.

Their SOP: "If it moves, kill it".

Illegal Immigrant encroachment problem solved.

Step 2: Round up the illegals in this country and give them the option of either leaving, dead or alive.