Notes on The Mexican Military's Mission to the Guatemala-Mexico Border
By Todd Bensman on June 10, 2019
Soon, some 6,000 Mexican government troops will be on their way to fortify its 541-mile southern border with Guatemala against further mass economic migration surging through toward the American one. Their deployment is part of a negotiated settlement with President Trump to drop the threat of progressive trade tariffs on Mexican products.
But speaking as someone who has explored the Mexico-Guatemala border while reporting about the massive human smuggling industry that dominates Guatemala's economy, I am skeptical that 6,000 ground troops will completely succeed.
This is a border every bit as tough to seal as our own line with Mexico, but with not even a measurable fraction of the America's layered defenses, such as motion-detection technology, multi-agency air and marine assets, and bilateral intelligence collaboration. And we have a pretty good idea of how well all that's been working on the U.S. Southwest Border.
https://cis.org/Bensman/Notes-Mexican-Militarys-Mission-GuatemalaMexico-Border
