One of the first things I notice as I progress over the bridge to Nuevo Progreso is the new sign, I believe it is set up by the bridge owners themselves, advising crossers that the Mexican Army is searching vehicles at random in Nuevo Progreso itself. I doubt that is going to help much. Anyone smuggling guns into Mexico is not going to park on the main street waiting to get searched. It’s all part of a Mexican and American bi-national, bi-lingual government theater group staging another interminable episode in the ongoing play: “Let’s pretend we’re doing something to solve the problem, while not really doing anything substantive”. Now however the audience is sitting more and more on it’s hands. This play is getting mighty old.
Suddenly, I hear a zooming much like a super-pissed African hornet coming up from just below me. I follow the sound west and there they are! Our fearless Border Patrol! In a shallow water skiff hauling ass like water cops to a dockside donut shop. At least two things struck me as peculiar. One: they had to stay on the north side of the Rio Grande in order to not violate Mexican territorial sovereignty, of course, and also that the river was really down. I was seeing sand bars that I had never seen before even in the worst of droughts, and I’ve seen a few. The month before when Hurricane Alex commited hari-kari in the watershed, The Rio Grande was flooding up stream so bad some Winter Texan Parks were underwater… Mexicans in home-made vessels were rafting over in Starr County to rob the abandoned homes on the U.S. side. And the entire levee and flood control system was at capacity. (Insert link to flood on wttv.com)
I take it after this massive ejaculation of floodwater, Rio Bravo/Rio/Grande was totally spent and drained after all the fun. We all know the feeling…
Second point: With the Border Patrol Navy going as fast as they were in their little boat, they wouldn’t have been able to see a mojado until they felt the bump…or for that matter could they notice fresh footprints, trampled underbrush and any other crossing river signs. Actually they should have been doing zig-zag and other evasive maneuvers all over the river to avoid getting machine-gunned from the Mexican side. But of course that would have put them into “Mexican Sovereign Territory”. It’s amazing nothing has happened so far. The Border Patrol is not fearless, because in order to be fearless you have to be dumb, and they ain’t dumb. I’m sure the two BP’s were terrified. They should have armor plating and rifle slits etc. At least something to protect against small arms fire But that could be politically incorrect… I no longer bother talking to my congressmen, I think replacement is the only option for them, but maybe you could contact yours. Unless it is politically incorrect. Then we should all just back off.
Shades of Vietnam and the Navy Swift Boats, and John Kerry and all that. At least our Navy Swamp Rats had armor plating against the River Cong.
I can’t help but wonder…Why no direct attacks on the American Military or border police by the cartels yet?…The Mexican Cartels actually have been quite fearless. Or are they still corrupting and softening up the American Security Forces? Just biding their time. Quien Sabe? You have to believe the unbelievable when it happens all the time, and a lot has happened already. The one thing that I know is that we will see what happens when it does.
Well, I went to see my clients. Business has been slow, not many people on the street. Went to the Farmacia/Bar for a well deserved margarita. There were some old guys down below for the afternoon, listening to classic rock, throwing back a few, relating stories to bar help about Austin and “Hippie Holler” and other wild tales.
And of course, getting their meds.
Things can happen in Nuevo Progreso. Some of them good.
Postscript: The Border Patrol I believe is the finest border security force in North America. They don’t indulge in the robbing, rapes; beatings, extortion and abuse that their counterparts do in Latin America. I would have heard if they do from all the immigrant rights groups in the Rio Grande Valley. They keep a pretty close watch on them.
The men and women in green should get some armor on their boats.
Below, some photos and reports from March 21, 2010; “Winter Texan Appreciation Day”.
