EL PASO TEXAS (Agencias). – Two U.S. Army soldiers were sitting in a Chevrolet Tahoe without U.S. Customs and Border Protection identification on the west side of an area known as Las Pampas in El Paso County, Texas.
The U.S. Army men, a sergeant and a private, had set up a hasty observation post north of the Rio Grande, but south of the U.S. border fence. The soldiers were members of Battery B, 1st Battalion, 37th Field Artillery Regiment, outside Joint Lewis-McChord Base in Washington. The unit, which was part of the southwest border mission first ordered by Donald Trump in October 2018 and recently had its deployment extended through September.
At about 1400 local time, soldiers observed five to six people dressed in pixelated green military camouflage uniforms and carrying weapons, which appeared to be the FX-05 Xiuhcoatl, an assault rifle designed and built for the Mexican armed forces. The armed men quickly approached U.S. service members, crossing from the Mexican side of the Rio Grande into U.S. territory, ordering soldiers to get off the vehicle at gunpoint.
Google Earth screenshot of the place where two U.S. Army soldiers were temporarily detained by Mexican military, believing that U.S. service members were in Mexico when, in fact, Mexican soldiers had crossed into the United States. Image: GOOGLE EARTH
What happened that April afternoon near the small town of Clint, Texas, underscores the confusion between the physical location of the border fence, where the geographic border between the U.S. and Mexico begins and ends. In Texas, the border fence does not align perfectly with the topography of the precise location of the U.S.-Mexico border; this creates a buffer zone between the actual, often invisible, border.
In addition, while parts of the Texas-Mexico border are fenced, much of this is not, due to a variety of problems, including ongoing litigation, private property rights, treaty provisions, and flood plains.
Newsweek magazine obtained a copy of the incident report just 30 minutes after the Mexican military held members of the U.S. military at gunpoint after believing that they were in Mexican territory when, in fact, the Mexican army had unknowingly crossed to U.S. territory.
The report was reviewed by Lieutenant Colonel Timothy D. Gatlin of the U.S. Army, Commander of the 1st Battalion, 37th Field Artillery Regiment, and reported to U.S. Army Lieutenant General Jeffrey Buchanan, Commander General of the U.S. Army North.
U.S. Army soldiers said Mexican soldiers moved tactically so fast that they didn’t have enough reaction time to activate a 911 emergency on their Nano Shout, a two-way GPS satellite tracking device the size of a cell phone, which also becomes an emergency beacon when American soldiers need additional military units.
The Yucatan Times
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