No Country For Old Men
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.
Sealing the Border would begin to address half the problem.
Yes! I agree with effective border control. But the users cause the other half of the problem. They are insatiable.
This might just be a good time to follow your husbands example.
I usually do. ;9)
Well, at least they didn’t waterboard him.
I’m glad we don’t vacation it the area. My husband would have reacted, badly.”
As the incident happened on the Mexico side of the border and if you happened to be there, had your husband reacted badly he possibly would be dead now.
When Nixon began the War on Drugs in 1969 the ratio of the funding dollar was about 75 cents for education/treatment and 25 cents for enforcement/interdiction. Today that ratio is reversed. I believe in treatment but for some people prison is the best treatment.
The libertarian philosophy is to legalize everything. That has never been tried so I don’t know if it would work or not.
I had heard that the Mexican military was really cracking down on their side of the border trying to get things under control. Sounds like it’s true.
on the list please
Never been to mexico. Can’t think of anything that would ever compel me to go.
Oh, they’re not Americans who did these horrible acts? Then who cares? /MSM
but it'll take about 10 seconds for someone to come on here and say what a lovely place Mexico is and no one should fear for their safety...right......
Mexico is so nice this time of year...
Exactly.
From Wikipedia:
Currie's Diaries (1987-92), published in 2002, caused a sensation, since they revealed a four-year affair with John Major, starting in 1984 and ending in 1988. The affair began when she was on the backbench, and Major was the government whip under Margaret Thatcher. After Major's rise to Chief Secretary to the Treasury, the relationship ended, but the two remained friends. Currie maintains that she ended the affair when it became dangerous and impractical, due to the presence of bodyguards who would need to be avoided.
Major was reportedly "ashamed" of the affair, and had privately revealed its existence to his wife. However, Currie admitted to being "in love" with him for years afterwards. Weeks after revealing the affair, she publicly criticised Major, accusing him of sexism and racism, and being "one of the less competent prime ministers".
The admission came after years of denials of any affair in office, and after writing several novels with raunchy themes, such as A Parliamentary Affair.
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