Mexico's new National Guard was created to fight crime, but now it's in a face-off with migrants
Source: Reuters
WORLD NEWS JULY 7, 2019 / 10:06 AM / UPDATED 3 HOURS AGO
Mexico's new National Guard was created to fight crime, but now it's in a face-off with migrants
Anthony Esposito
7 MIN READ
CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (Reuters) - A convoy of Mexican state and municipal police trucks roared along the U.S.-Mexico border in Ciudad Juarez to confront cartel gunmen, past National Guardsmen patrolling the banks of the Rio Grande River for migrants trying to cross into the United States.
We should be with them, not here. Were soldiers, one of three guardsmen in a green camouflage uniform grumbled to himself within earshot of a Reuters reporter. He was frustrated that orders kept him from going to back up police in the shootout with gangsters.
The National Guard is a new security force that was created by Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to bring down record homicide rates. But now it has been tasked with patrolling the border to placate President Donald Trump, who has demanded Mexico stem the flow of U.S.-bound Central Americans that pass through the country or risk tariffs on Mexican goods.
If the deployment of some 21,000 National Guard troops at Mexicos northern and southern borders can reduce the flow of migrants, Lopez Obrador will have successfully kept Trumps tariffs at bay and averted opening up another front in the global trade war.
But using almost a third of the National Guards total ranks for migration duties means fewer security forces to tackle one of Mexicos most pressing issues, spiraling violence, which last year cost a record 33,000 lives. Those numbers continued surging in the first six months of Lopez Obradors term in office, which began in December.
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-immigration-mexico-security/mexicos-new-national-guard-was-created-to-fight-crime-but-now-its-in-a-face-off-with-migrants-idUSKCN1U20HU