CIUDAD JUÁREZ, Mexico — A line of Mexican Nationwide Guard and Military vehicles rumbled alongside the border separating Ciudad Juárez and El Paso, Texas, on Wednesday, among the many first of 10,000 troops Mexico has despatched to its northern frontier following tariff threats by President Donald Trump.
Masked and armed Nationwide Guard members picked by means of brush operating alongside the border barrier on the outskirts of Ciudad Juárez, pulling out makeshift ladders and ropes tucked away within the trenches, and pulling them onto vehicles. Patrols had been additionally seen on different components of the border close to Tijuana.
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It comes after a turbulent week alongside the border after Trump introduced he would delay imposing crippling tariffs on Mexico for at the very least a month. In trade, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum promised she would ship the nation’s Nationwide Guard to bolster the border and crack down on fentanyl smuggling.
Trump has declared an emergency on the border regardless of migration ranges and fentanyl overdoses considerably dipping over the previous yr. The U.S. mentioned it will, in flip, do extra to cease American weapons from being trafficked into Mexico to gasoline cartel violence, which has rippled to different components of the nation as legal teams battle to regulate the profitable migrant smuggling trade.
On Tuesday, the primary of these forces arrived in border cities, climbing out of presidency planes. Guard members within the Wednesday patrol confirmed that they had been a part of the brand new pressure.
“There will likely be everlasting surveillance on the border,” José Luis Santos Iza, one of many Nationwide Guard leaders heading off the deployment within the metropolis, informed media upon the arrival of the primary set of troopers. “This operation is primarily to forestall drug trafficking from Mexico to the US, primarily fentanyl.”
No less than 1,650 troops had been anticipated to be despatched to Ciudad Juárez, in response to authorities figures, making it one of many largest receivers of border reinforcements within the nation, second solely to Tijuana, the place 1,949 are slated to be despatched.
Throughout U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s journey by means of Latin America — the place migration was on the high of the agenda — the highest American diplomat thanked the Mexican authorities for the forces, in response to an announcement by the Mexican authorities.
The negotiation by Sheinbaum was seen by observers as a little bit of shrewd political maneuvering by the newly elected Mexican chief. Many had beforehand solid doubt that she’d have the ability to navigate Trump’s presidency as successfully as her predecessor and ally, former President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
