The tension on the border between Mexico and the United States adds a new chapter. As part of Operation Lone Star aimed at shielding the border from migrants, the governor of Texas, Republican Greg Abbott, has illegally installed a chain of anti-immigration buoys 2 meters long along 400 meters of the Rio Grande River. diameter joined together with large circular saws.
These contraptions, located between the points of Eagle Pass (USA) and Piedras Negras (Mexico), prevent you from going over or under if you don't want to endanger your own life. This is what is believed to have happened last week, when the inert bodies of two migrants were found in the vicinity of this floating barrier.
Faced with this situation, two Democratic congressmen from Texas, Sylvia García and Joaquín Castro, traveled to the barriers in a kayak in the company of a journalist from the state's public broadcaster. In their testimonies, both recorded the impression left on them by the image of these jagged saw blades placed between each buoy.
“I am appalled by the cruel and inhumane tactics employed by Governor Abbott at the border. These buoys pose a real danger... We must stop this now," Congresswoman Garcia tweeted.
Castro expressed himself in similar terms, who also denounced what he saw in Eagle Pass on his social networks. “Everyone needs to know this…I've seen clothing caught on the blades. There are chainsaws in the middle of the buoys… Operation Lone Star is outrageous and Governor Abbott is turning border communities into collateral damage.” "It's incredibly dangerous, incredibly inhumane and that's why I insist that it's barbaric," he added.
The Republican's deterrence methods also horrify many Eagle Pass residents. In late July, the town council voted to terminate the agreement with the state to repossess the Shelby Park property, thereby preventing the national guard from detaining migrants for trespassing.
"Obviously, if it is inhumane, I am not going to say: 'Yes, I am totally in favor of cutting people (with barbed wire)'," said the mayor, Rolando Salinas, before correcting and joining the unanimous vote. .
For its part, the Justice Department sued Texas in July to remove the buoys and concertinas after Abbott refused to do so voluntarily. "See you in court," the governor responded to the federal legal initiative.
Texas authorities have been warned since December 2022 on several occasions that barriers in and along the river violate federal law and international treaties with Mexico.
In this sense, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mexico, Alicia Bárcena, pointed out last month that the Mexican government had sent a diplomatic letter to the United States in which it affirmed that these barriers in Río Grande, Río Bravo for Mexicans, violate a water treaty of 1944.
"We reiterate the position of the Government of Mexico that the placement of wire buoys by the Texas authorities is a violation of our sovereignty," read the statement issued by the Mexican Foreign Ministry last week after learning of the appearance of the two bodies in area.
