Troops have already begun to move after Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum announced on Feb. 3 that her country would deploy around 10,000 National Guard troops to its shared border with the United States, to help stem cross-border smuggling and illicit narcotics trafficking operations.
By the morning of Feb. 4, Mexico’s Secretariat of National Defense (SEDENA) shared a video on social media of Mexican troops and military vehicles gathering at a staging area. A couple of hours later, SEDENA shared further footage of a military convoy—including humvees, light-armored pickup trucks, and larger troop transport trucks—rolling out from the rallying point.
More than 100 Mexican National Guard troops were also observed boarding a flight from the southeastern Mexican city of Merida on Tuesday morning, bound for the northern border city of Juarez, which sits opposite El Paso, Texas. Additional units were scheduled to depart Cancun and Campeche, while still other troops were expected to travel north by road….