Chicago Hispanic Newspaper, Lawndale News, Hispanic Bilingual Newspapers, Su Noticiero Bilingue

By Daniel Nardini

Americans hear only too frequently about the number of refugees on the U.S.-Mexico border. What they do not hear about is how the Mexican side is trying to keep the numbers of these refugees from getting to the U.S.-Mexico border in the first place. Yes, the Mexican government is trying to do something about it. The Mexican government has been putting the Mexican army on the U.S.-Mexico border to keep the number of refugees from getting higher. Like the United States, the Mexican government cannot be everywhere along the 2000 mile border between the two countries. There are many places that the cartels can hide along this border, and they know where to find the most isolated spots because more often than not the Mexican farmers give the cartels aid because the cartels pay them a lot of money for smuggling operations along the U.S.-Mexico border. In return for the Mexican cartels being able to smuggle illicit drugs and refugees into the United States, the cartels are able to smuggle all kinds of guns and other weapons into Mexico from the United States since these are easy to obtain (I have spoken about this many times before).

But the cartels are not only active along the U.S.-Mexico border. They are equally active along the Mexico-Guatemalan border. This is where a lot of the problems with refugees and illicit drugs begin, and both the Mexican and Guatemalan armies are trying to stem the flow of all this from entering Mexico in the first place. The Mexican and Guatemalan governments have come to an agreement to put their armies along this contentious border. But like the U.S.-Mexico border, it is easier said than done. While the Mexico-Guatemala border is nowhere near the size of the U.S.-Mexico border, it is a treacherous terrain of thick tropical forests and high mountains which makes it just as difficult to cover even with the best of the intelligence personnel and military equipment the Mexican and Guatemalan governments have. And like the U.S.-Mexico border, the cartels have been able to secure the cooperation of the local popular on both sides of the Mexico-Guatemala border either through bribery or threats to do as the cartels want. Because of the weaponry the cartels are able to illegally import from the United States, there are scenarios where the cartels actually have better firepower than either the Guatemalan or Mexican military units they encounter.

These things remain largely unknown to the American public. The American public is bombarded by the U.S. right wing media about the U.S. Border Patrol being overwhelmed by “hordes” of refugees coming into the United States illegally and getting all kinds of “free stuff” from the U.S. government while Americans are struggling. Someday, I will deal with the myth of this right wing propaganda, but what my readers should know is that both the Mexican and Guatemalan military are fighting against the Mexican cartels to bring all of these refugees into both Guatemala and Mexico in the first place, and both Guatemalan and Mexican troops are being wounded and dying to prevent this flow of refugees from becoming a lot worse than it is. It is this side of the story which Americans are ignorant of, and which needs to be told.