Mexican helicopter over Texas sparks drug war concerns

Here we go again.

The Mexican military has been crossing the border with impunity for nearly a decade. Now, they are comfortable enough to fly over the homes of DHS and Border Patrol officers in Texas.

The Zapata County sheriff Thursday was questioning why a Mexican military helicopter was hovering over homes on the Texas side of the Rio Grande.

It was one of the more jarring incidents of the fourth week of border tensions sparked by drug killings — and rumors of drug killings — in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas.

Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez said he'd reviewed photos of the chopper flown by armed personnel Tuesday over a residential area known as Falcon Heights-Falcon Village near the binational Falcon Lake, just south of the Starr-Zapata county line. He said the helicopter appeared to have the insignia of the Mexican navy.

“It's always been said that the Mexican military does in fact ... that there have been incursions,” Gonzalez said. “But this is not New Mexico or Arizona. Here we've got a river, there's a boundary line. And then of course having Falcon Lake, Falcon Dam, it's a lot wider. It's not just a trickle of a river, it's an actual dam. You know where the boundary's at.”

www.chron.com...

Of course, it would not be politically correct in the Obama administration to prevent these military invasions and tactical tests of awareness and response, or otherwise act to maintain our sovereignty.

Gonzalez, the Zapata sheriff, said he couldn't confirm reports that the helicopter was scoping the home of a drug criminal. He said the incursion about a mile over the border occurred over a neighborhood populated by many U.S. Customs officers who work at area border crossings — and they knew what they were seeing.

“My understanding is the U.S. military were informed,” he said. “I don't know what action was taken, if any.”

jw

Judicial Watch has sued the Obama Administration for release of documentation of the severity of these invasions and attacks on our Border guards:

Judicial Watch has led the charge to uncover government documents detailing hundreds of intentional incursions by Mexican government operatives into the United States in recent years.
This week we learned that the situation is getting worse.
On Tuesday, we released a U.S. Customs and Border Protection report titled, BorderStat Violence, FY 2008 Year in Review, which documents a sharp increase in violence on the U.S. border with Mexico. Judicial Watch forced the allegedly transparent Obama administration to release this document through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit we filed against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on January 27, 2009.

Here are the headlines:

* There were a total of 147 incursions at and between the Ports of Entry for all Customs and Border Protection (CBP) components for FY 2008 when compared to 32 incursions for FY 2007, an increase of 359%.
* There were 1,325 incidents of violence occurring at or between the Ports of Entry against CBP Agents and Officers, resulting in a 23 percent increase from 1,073 in FY 2007.
* 97 percent of all incidents of violence against CBP Agents and Officers occurred on the southwest border.
* The San Diego sector sustained the largest increase in assaults, 48 percent, for FY 2008 when compared to FY 2007. The Yuma sector experienced the largest decrease, 56 percent.
* There were 227 assaults against CBP Officers at the Ports of Entry in FY 2008 as compared to 85 in FY 2007, an increase of 167 percent.

Mexican Incursions, Border Violence Exposed

Of course, Napolitano and Obama refuse to even acknowledge the problem, much less respond.

In the face of what is obviously an indisputable crisis on our border with Mexico, what has been the Obama administration's response?

Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano recently turned down an offer for increased funding from the Senate Committee on Homeland Defense to address the problem of violence on the southern border. The Obama administration also rejected an appeal from Texas Governor Rick Perry and Arizona Governor Jan Brewer to deploy 1,000 National Guard troops to help quell border violence. Instead, the Obama administration announced a plan to temporarily send 360 federal agents to the border, a plan which has little chance of succeeding.

The Obama administration has been tone deaf on the issue of border security. Our Border Patrol agents are being attacked and our sovereignty violated at alarming rates. The symbolic gestures offered by the administration are virtually meaningless in light of these numbers. When will the Mexican government be held to account for its purposeful incursions into our sovereign territory?

What will it take? Full-scale occupation of a border town? Murders of MORE law enforcement and Border officials?

jw

"skybacks" ?

J/K

reply to post by Romans 10:9
More likely, "Next Dia Delivery de aire"

or "Siguiente Día de llevar por aire."

Apparently, the MSM is keeping mum so far.

This is nothing new. I grew up on the Mexican Border in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas. My grandparents had place right on the Rio Grande River and we saw this all the time as kids..and I am in my 40s. Usually they were after drug runners (supposedly) but I don't recall them ever coming very far into US airspace, no more than 1/4 mile or so, usually just enough to turn their craft around.

AllinMyHead

reply to post by AllInMyHead

Up until 2001, I lived and worked in the Valley. I do not recall ever seeing Mexican soldiers anywhere past the tiendas and bars along the river. Even then, they were just taking time off, not patrolling or worse.

Even in San Antonio, we had Mexican military as regular customers at Joske's, North Star Mall and other places; but never "on business."

Apparently, it doesn't matter, anyway. We don't seem to be inclined to do anything about it.

jw

Of course none of this wouldn't be a problem if we weren't running an asinine war on drugs.

reply to post by DeathShield


Good point! s4u

Who would you expect to take the lead in the 'drug war' insanity?

Mexico quietly decriminalizes drug use

Now marijuana, coc aine, '___', and heroin will be tolerated for personal use. It's part of a bid to free up resources and jail space so that authorities can focus efforts on big-time traffickers.

In 2006, a Mexico initiative to decriminalize limited personal drug use set off a storm north of the border. The San Diego mayor called it "appallingly stupid." Mexico was painted as a potential haven for drug tourism, the next Netherlands of Latin America.

The initiative, not surprisingly, quickly died.

Three years later, in the midst of a massive drug war that’s taken more than 11,000 lives and brought the US and Mexico into closer and more costly cooperation, the initiative has quietly become law. And there’s hardly a peep.

Now not just marijuana, but coc aine, '___', and heroin will be tolerated for personal and limited use. That means about four joints, or half a gram of coc aine, or 50 milligrams of heroin. Bigger quantities, sales, and public consumption are still strictly forbidden.

Officials here say the aim is to free up both resources and jail space so that authorities can focus efforts on big-time traffickers wreaking havoc in Mexico. "This frees us from a flood of small crimes that have saturated our federal government and allows the authorities to go after big criminals," said Bernardo Espino del Castillo, who works in the attorney general's office in Mexico.

It also focuses on rehabilitation for repeat drug users, making treatment mandatory for abusers.

www.csmonitor.com...

God forbid that the U.S. should take a reasoned position; we'll leave it to the forward-thinking leaders of Mexico, Columbia and Portugal.

Here's the Obama admin.'s official position:

The Obama White House has finally laid out its most thorough, reasoned rebuttal to arguments for marijuana legalization – countering a campaign that is gaining alarming momentum at the state level.

The president’s tough position was delivered in early March by his “drug czar,” Gil Kerlikowske, in a private talk before police chiefs in California – which is ground zero for this debate.

“Marijuana legalization – for any purpose – is a nonstarter in the Obama administration,” said Mr. Kerlikowske, a former police chief himself.

...

Thirteen states have decriminalized the use or possession of small amounts of marijuana, which is not the same as legalizing it. Selling it is still illegal except in states where it is used for medical purposes. And under federal law, any sort of marijuana use or sale is a criminal offense.

The drug czar’s remarks are worth notice for two reasons. First, they provide needed talking points for those who oppose legalization but who can’t seem to make their message resonate in the face of a well-financed, well-organized pro-marijuana effort. Second, they help clear up confusion about the White House policy on legalization.

www.csmonitor.com...

Tell me, which is the more "developed" nation?

jw

[edit on 13-3-2010 by jdub297]