Posted on 02/24/2008 5:03:31 PM PST by SwinneySwitch
PROGRESO — A family of Winter Texans from South Dakota said they witnessed a “heinous” act on the U.S. side of the Progreso International Bridge around 3 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 13.
A couple and their adult daughter, all of whom asked not to be identified, said they were visiting the border town of Nuevo Progreso with a couple from Colorado that day. Before crossing back into the United States, the South Dakota family said they had stopped at a courtyard area on the Mexican side of the bridge, just past a pedestrian toll turnstile, to wait for the other couple. Near where they waited was a compound behind the restrooms, the family said. They said they saw a group of what appeared to be military men escorting a prisoner from the compound.
The wife said she overheard another American say, “Boy, that guy’s going to get the (expletive) kicked out of him.”
The men in the group were dressed in fatigues like Mexican soldiers that they had seen along the border earlier, the husband said. The family said they also had seen a small group of four soldiers under the bridge earlier that day as they crossed into Mexico.
The man in custody, the husband said, was wearing a black shirt and denim pants. He looked to be about 5 feet, 8 inches tall, weighing about 200 pounds, he added.
The daughter said he was blindfolded and handcuffed behind his back.
One of the men in fatigues was carrying a gun that looked like an M-16 rifle, the daughter said. The gun appeared to have a 20-shot magazine in it, her father added.
Another man was holding an inner tube, the husband said. “I thought, ‘What’s he doing with an inner tube?’ ” the husband recalled.
As the group left the compound, the man in custody was crying and screaming, the wife said. The family said about 50 other people were in the area of the courtyard.
“(The men in fatigues) had to maneuver around us, near the bench we were at,” the husband said. “They were maybe 6 feet away from us.”
The men in fatigues walked across Nuevo Progreso’s main street with their captive to the west side of the bridge, the family said.
The family said they then watched the men in fatigues take the man in the black shirt across the bridge toward the U.S. side as he continued to scream.
The family said they don’t understand Spanish so they do not know what the man said — or if he even said anything at all. But the man was screaming, they said.
The walkways on the bridge on the Mexican side have louvered screens in the space between the guardrails and the roof. These stop at the international boundary marker in the middle of the span, leaving the space open on the U.S. side.
The screens prevent anyone from throwing things off the bridge, which may have been the reason the men in fatigues continued walking to the U.S. side, the husband said.
“ ‘Why are they taking him there?’ ” the wife remembered asking.
Once the men in fatigues and their captive reached the midpoint of the bridge, the wife said, they sat him on the bridge railing with his feet hanging above the river.
Throughout the whole incident, the family said they did not hear the men in fatigues say anything to their prisoner.
After the man was seated on the rail, one of the other men threw the inner tube over the bridge railing, the family said.
Then, “one man pushed him over the bridge,” the wife said. “We never heard a scream.”
The daughter said she saw the same thing. “I watched,” she said. “I saw them push him.”
As the men in fatigues pushed the man over the side of the bridge, the daughter said, another witness said they saw that the men in fatigues had removed the handcuffs. Shortly after the man was pushed over the bridge, the family said, they heard gunshots. They said they weren’t sure if the men in fatigues fired at the man.
“They must have done it to scare him,” the wife speculated.
She estimated the whole incident lasted about 15 minutes. Her husband said it lasted about 5 minutes. Other witnesses who were watching with the family all gasped as the man was pushed off the bridge, the wife said.
Many of the observers photographed the incident, the family said.
Inside the U.S. Customs and Border Protection area, where the daughter was screened when she re-entered the United States, she said she heard a Mexican woman talking about the incident to an official.
The family also said CBP agents said they were “surprised” that the incident occurred in broad daylight.
“They didn’t seem worried,” the wife said.
The act was “just brutal,” the wife said, adding, “I don’t see how anyone could have been authorized to do that on the American side. Why would they do it? What right do they have?”
What they saw was no joke, the wife said.
“It was not anybody going for a fun jump,” she said.
The Winter Texans, who live at the Fun N Sun RV Resort in San Benito, said they worry that the border town that caters to U.S. tourists may not be as safe as they used to think.
The incident still bothered her that night.
“I couldn’t sleep,” the woman said.
Progreso Ping!
If you want on, or off this S. Texas/Mexico ping list, please FReepMail me.
The Winter Texans better wise up fast, with kidnappings increasing in border towns. Real Texans have decided it is dangerous to go into Mexico quite a while ago.
From the news of late, some border towns on OUR side aren’t as safe as we thought either.
Uh, Toto we’re not in Kansas anymore!
Hey libs...wake up...the rest of the world does not want to sing Kumbuaya with you!
Gee, ya think?
Go visit the Alamo or Galveston Island. Spend your money in Texas. Every dollar spent in Mexico allows a corrupt oligarchy to stay in power, to horde the wealth, to poison America with drugs, and to ignore the misery of millions who invade the U.S. for jobs.
Interrogation.
They probably scooped him up out of the river, and his nightmare continued.
That, or they were done with him, and that was their way of letting him go while making a point.
He was screaming because he thought they were going to shoot him. But a blind-folded fall into a river from a high bridge would probably shake anyone up pretty badly.
Wow, nice piece of writing Edwina P. Garza: You used the word “said” 44 times in your article.
That being said, Mexico is a third world country and roaming death squads, cops and soldiers on the take, things like that are common place.
The only shocking thing is that these folks were surprised by what they saw.
to poison America with drugs...
I agree with you most of the way...except the above-— drugs come here because of the GREEDY CONSUMERS of them here in the US.
Nobody buys..nobody sells.
For the life of me, I dont understand why anyone would crossover to the Mexican side of the border - especially with their kids. Maybe these kids were adult in age, but nonetheless.
The last time I crossed over was at Progresso about 5 years ago. I will never take my children and I seriously doubt I will ever go back across in my lifetime.
What you said. ;-)
I'm glad we don't vacation it the area. My husband would have reacted, badly.
There are a lot of beautiful destinations right here in the USA. Why people would want to visit a third world country for fun is beyond me.
Someday soon I want to revisit the Black Hills. I fell in love with them when I was 12, especially the mica in the soil that made the dirt glitter and the smell of the air in the morning.
A very good friend of mine bought a house near Cuernavaca and my husband is determined that we will not visit them. I could probably be convinced but he says absolutely not.
Just a recitation of what the alleged witnesses said -- we can make our own judgment. More journalists should try it!
Drive along Paisano Drive in El Paso, right next to the fence.
Look into Juarez, Mexico at the hillsides covered with little shacks and you realize that that US-Mexico Border is one of the few place in the world where the “First World” and the “Third World” meet face to face.
[. . . drugs come here because of the GREEDY CONSUMERS of them here in the US.]
The vast majority of Americans who don’t use drugs are still threatened by the collateral damage created by the Mexican drug trade which includes the corruption of U.S. officials. Illegal demand never justifies illegal supply.
Sealing the Border would begin to address half the problem.
What you said about El Paso-Ciudad Juarez is so true.I remember first sseing Juarez while driving eastbound on I-10 and being shocked to see slums on the other side of the border as far as the eye could see.
Also,April,1977.I am driving from New Orleans to California to resettle there.My car is packed and I have Mardi Gras beads dangling from my mirror.As I returned to my car after lunch at a health food restaurant,twenty or so young Mexican kids around eight or nine mobbed my car,grabbing for the beads and begging for change.They were some of the most raggedy kids I had ever seen and I have been in some of the worst black ghettos in the country.I had to literally punch and shove those kids out of my car as I hurled the beads out my window,
I sped out of El Paso as fast as I could with no plans to ever return.
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