EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) — Mexico’s law enforcers and first responders are asking for help, and several countries, including some overseas, are heeding the call.
Binational coordination between the U.S. and Mexico is nothing new and dates back over a hundred years.
Mexico, however, faces a new set of challenges, including its fight with organized crime, that some experts believe it will struggle to handle.
In Episode 3 of Border Report Live, border correspondents discuss a variety of binational programs or agreements designed to give Mexico a boost in its fight against cartels, and an upper hand in dealing with disasters.
Training across the border
This past June, several buses filled with American troops crossed the border for a disaster exercise in Juarez, Mexico, and officers from Tijuana went into San Diego to train with U.S. Border Patrol agents.
The U.S. soldiers were members of the Joint Task Force Civil Support of the U.S. Army’s Northern Command based in Fort Eustis, Virginia.
They traveled to the embattled Mexican border city, military helicopters and all, to take part in several joint disaster response exercises with the Mexican army.
For a week, troops from both countries responded to simulated disasters that included the collapse of the stadium after an earthquake, a chemical spill, a train derailment involving tank cars carrying hazardous materials, and the collapse of an airport terminal.
The collaboration is called Fuerzas Amigas, or “Friendly Forces,” and a similar exercise in 2022 took place in Reynosa, Mexico.
In San Diego, also in June, U.S. Border Patrol agents welcomed firefighters and law enforcement personnel from Tijuana to learn how to deal with smugglers and injured migrants.
The scenario involved three officers armed with semi-automatic weapons approaching a migrant who was being robbed by a bandit.
A gun battle ensues, and both the “suspect” and “migrant” are mortally wounded. The scene is secured, and firefighters and paramedics move in to treat the migrant in distress.
As part of the same agreement between the U.S. Border Patrol and Mexico, agents from El Paso trained 25 Juarez police officers on how to respond to health emergencies such as drug overdoses and how to stop bleeds and perform CPR.
More recently, during the Special Forces International Encounter 2024, the Chihuahua State Police’s newly formed SWAT team trained with security experts and gang experts from Spain, South America and Central America.
Some of the experts acknowledged that Mexico has unique challenges, particularly the ultraviolent cartels, adding that Mexican forces, unfortunately, are often outgunned and in dire need of training.
On the other hand, the foreign experts themselves say they learn as much as the officers they train.
Although the training exercises can be spectacular, with helicopters, guns and hand-to-hand combat, these partnerships allow participants to gather intelligence, something officials say is equally key to their crime-fighting efforts.
The U.S. and Mexico, for example, are sharing intelligence to arrest individuals wanted by authorities on both sides of the border.
One initiative is called “Se Busca Información,” Spanish for “seeking information,” and it involves identifying the border’s Most Wanted, their pictures, and a tipline for residents to help track them down.
Borderland residents and travelers might notice posters or billboards of the 10 individuals at ports of entry or and other border facilities. In Mexican border towns, the flyers appear along city streets and in stores.
In the El Paso region, tips have led to the arrest of 13 of the 40 fugitives featured in the border’s Most Wanted posters.