MEXICO SAYS SOLDIERS DIDN'T FIRE AT U.S. AGENTS OR CROSS BORDER

SAN DIEGO -- Mexican authorities have acknowledged that an anti-drug
squad was patrolling near where U.S. Border Patrol agents last week
reported a confrontation with armed men north of the border, U.S.
officials said Thursday.

But Mexico, which said six soldiers were looking for drug smuggling,
maintains the squad did not cross into the United States or fire
weapons, U.S. officials said.

Meanwhile, the union representing Border Patrol agents in San Diego
says the agency downplayed the seriousness of the Oct. 24
confrontation, during which it says uniformed men pursued a pair of
agents on the U.S. side.

Border Patrol officials described the incident by saying a squad of
unidentified men crossed during daylight into remote Copper Canyon,
about four miles east of the Otay Mesa port of entry. Officials said
its agents called out, identifying themselves as border officers, and
summoned help after hearing gunshots. But the agency said it was
unclear if the shots came from the group.

But National Border Patrol Council Local 1613 is offering a more
dramatic account, saying two agents were pinned by gunfire and pursued
on U.S. soil by 10 men, who wore ``military-style uniforms'' and
carried rifles with bayonets.

The union said snipers took positions on each side of the border while
others searched U.S. terrain, pointing their rifles toward the border
agents and ordering them out of the bushes where they had taken cover.

The group returned to Mexico when two more Border Patrol agents showed
up, the union said.

A representative said the union was airing its version, based on
agents' accounts, because it believed that the Border Patrol had
``whitewashed'' the matter. The union did not make the agents
available for comment.

``We all know we face some dangers in our jobs,'' L. Keith Weeks, vice
president of Local 1613, said Thursday. ``But in something like this
- -- it's something that shouldn't happen, that should be brought to
light.''

William T. Veal, Border Patrol chief in San Diego, said the incident
was taken seriously and was the subject of talks with Mexican
counterparts. ``Whether they crossed into the United States or not, we
may never definitively establish,'' Veal said.

But he said the episode showed the need for cross-border communication
when such exercises take place.

``Our concern is that when elements of the government are going to
operate in the immediate border vicinity, there needs to be a
coordination mechanism,'' Veal said.

The union compared the incident with a March 14 case in which Mexican
soldiers patrolling against drugs crashed through a border fence west
of El Paso, Texas, and fired at agents.