Whatcha Gonna Do?

The San Antonio Express-News offers more details on the encounter between cops and bad boys on the Rio Grande in West Texas:

A military-style camouflaged Humvee mounted with a large gun was awaiting two fleeing SUVs carrying suspected drug smugglers. ...

A dozen heavily armed men dressed in dark olive-drab military clothes fanned out into two flanking groups, hid in the brush and aimed their weapons at the police.

Mexico's consul general in El Paso tells the El Paso Times that the suspects were not Mexican soldiers.

But the Inland Daily Bulletin in Ontario, Calif., which first reported about the armed incusions, says Border Patrol agents are upset that officials on both sides of the border won't admit the Mexican military is crossing into the United States.

ADDENDUM: The Brownsville Herald chimes in with an editorial about the border incursions:

Mexican officials must do more than simply deny culpability. They need to determine and implement real strategies that keep people on both sides of the river safe. About the only patrols on the southern banks, however, are members of Grupo Beta, who generally serve to warn people against crossing the border illegally and rescue any who try anyway and get into trouble. These people are no match for any armed group that intends to pass into the United States.

It’s a daunting task, to be sure. Dozens of people already are being killed in the growing violence along Mexico’s northern edge. U.S. policing agencies have a responsibility, however, to protect residents on our side of the river. If they perceive a need to build up efforts against armed incursions, the results could be tragic, both in lives lost and the loss of good will between the people and governments of our two neighboring countries.