(NEW YORK) MintPress – A war of words with Mexico is escalating as U.S. Border Patrol agents step up the war on immigrants and drugs entering from this country.
Mexico City has accused agents of a disproportionate use of force after an incident over the weekend in which one of its citizens was fatally shot along the border with Texas.
The Mexican Foreign Ministry said that the citizen had been killed by a gunshot fired by a U.S. agent at the Los Tomates-Veterans international bridge, one of three that span the border. It did not provide further details.
But it said its consulate in Brownsville, Texas had send U.S. officials a message demanding a thorough investigation without regard to the consequences.
“The Mexican government has said once again that the disproportionate use of force…is unacceptable under any circumstances,” it stated.
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Matamoros resident Juana Maria Soto claimed her 30-year-old brother Juan Pablo Perez Soto was on the river bank cutting firewood when an agent crossed into Mexico to shoot him.
Border Patrol spokesman Henry Mendiola acknowledged the incident but has not confirmed that someone was shot and disputed any suggestion that agents crossed the border into Mexico.
He maintained that after agents came upon a group of people on the U.S. side, they detained some while others retreated towards the river and began throwing rocks. According to Mendiola, one agent who was not able to escape the rocks fired in the direction of the group.
At the same time, said Mendiola, another agent saw a person on the Mexican side of the border point a rifle at them and that agent fired across the river.
“Our agents are not going to go into Mexico to neutralize something like this,” he asserted.
Cross-border conflicts
Tensions have been heating up since 2010, when a Border Patrol agent in El Paso shot and killed a 15-year-old Mexican male across the Rio Grande. Investigators say the agent fired only after being attacked by people throwing rocks.
Last summer, Border Patrol agents and rangers with the Texas Department of Public Safety exchanged some 300 rounds of gunfire with suspected gun smugglers. U. S. authorities said that incident took place after the suspects threw rocks.
And in March, Border Patrol agents seizing 4,000 pounds of marijuana got into a shootout with drug smugglers, but it is not clear if anyone on the Mexican side was hit.
Challenge for new leadership
The latest incident comes less than two weeks after Mexico’s presidential election, which returned to power the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) that ruled the country as a dictatorship from 1929 to 2000.
President-elect Enrique Pena Nieto has pledged to tackle Mexico’s dire economic and security problems and establish it as an emerging power.
Since the beginning of Mexican President Felipe Calderon’s presidency, drug-related violence has climbed to unprecedented levels, especially in the northern border states.
“I want to signal very clearly that there will be no truce or deals with either organized crime or drug trafficking,” he said in a recent interview with Time. “We’re going to combat it with a frontal assault. One of the most important reforms we want to achieve is rule of law in Mexico, building confidence in those institutions.
“Make no mistake, it’s our duty to finish off the organized crime gangs, including drug traffickers.”
But lawmakers in Texas are concerned that the PRI will revive its tainted past, which included numerous reports of corruption and deal-making with criminal elements.
United States Representative Michael McCaul, (R-Austin), who has met several times with Calderone, said he was skeptical about how the country’s next leader will move forward after he assumes power on December 1.
“In the backdrop of all this is the PRI itself and their history,” McCaul asserted. “Traditionally, the PRI has been the party that has played nice with the cartels.”
This is the party’s chance to reverse course, and officials across the border will be paying close attention.