Source: The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, PBS
Contact: newshour@pbs.org

CASUALTIES OF THE DRUG WAR

TRANSCRIPT

A grand jury is currently considering whether to charge a Marine, who shot
and killed a U.S. citizen during drug interdiction on the U.S.Mexico, with
murder. The controversy has brought the use of regular military units to
patrol the border under intense scrutiny. Correspondent Tom Bearden reports.

TOM BEARDEN: Most of the flowers on Ezequiel Hernandez's grave turned brown
long ago in the brutal West Texas sun. But he is far from forgotten. The
18year old was buried in May, after he was shot near his home in an
encounter with a fourman Marine Corps surveillance unit that had dug in
alongside the Rio Grande River, which divides the tiny village of Redford,
Texas, from Mexico. The Marines were looking for drug smugglers, part of an
eight year old program that provides troops for drug interdiction.
Hernandez's family says he was herding goats on the U.S. side of the border
at about 6 PM, when 22year old corporal Clemente Banuelos fired the single
shot from his Ml6 rifle that killed him. Ezequiel's brother, Margarito,
pointed out where it happened.

A murder or an accident?

MARGARITO HERNANDEZ: This is where my brother was laying down. His head was
facing that way and his legs in this direction. And that’s where he was
shot from, from that spot over there.

TOM BEARDEN: About, what, a 100 yards away?

MARGARITO HERNANDEZ: Probably about a 100 yards.

TOM BEARDEN: The family claims the Marines stalked and killed Hernandez in
violation of their orders. The marines say Banuelos fired only after
Hernandez had fired two shots at the unit with his 22caliber rifle, and
that he was about to fire a third time. But the family says Ezequiel would
never have deliberately fired on anyone.

MARGARITO HERNANDEZ: Well, he was taking care of his goats, you know, he
was herding his goats and there's a bunch of dogs; we have always had a
problem with dogs, you know, some people come and throw them away because
they don't want them anymore, and they'll get in a pack and kill some
goats, you know.

TOM BEARDEN: So the rifle was to chase the wild dogs away?

MARGARITO HERNANDEZ: That's why we mostly use the rifle for, you know.

TOM BEARDEN: But attorneys for the soldiers say Hernandez had fired shots
at two border patrol agents in the same area three months earlier. They say
Banuelos shot Hernandez because he was aiming at a fellow Marine.

JACK ZIMMERMAN, Attorney for Corporal Banuelos: It’s been reported that Mr.
Hernandez was shooting at rocks, or he was shooting at animals. I want to
make it clear that these Marines were not, as has been reported in the
press, at the time that the shooting occurred stationary people that looked
like bushes. It’s been reported that Mr. Hernandez did not even shoot at
the Marines. Mr. Hernandez fired two shots at the Marines. Those shots were
contemporaneously reported to the Border Patrol and to the Marine Corps
headquarters at the time of the shooting. At seven minutes at 6, Corporal
Banuelos fired only as a last resort. And, in our judgment, he did not
violate any criminal law of the State of Texas or of the United States.

The Fallout of Ezequiel Hernandez's Death

TOM BEARDEN: There are a host of charges and countercharges about what
happened that day. A Texas grand jury will decide if there is enough
evidence to warrant an indictment and a trial. But the shooting has
rekindled a highlycharged debate about the policy of using active duty
troops in the war on drugs. Pentagon involvement began in 1989, when the
restrictions imposed by the Civil Warera posse comitatus law, which
forbids the use of military forces in law enforcement, were loosened. Since
then, thousands of soldiers, sailors, and airmen have assisted in
counterdrug operations around the world. Border operations are only a
small part of that effort. But some believe the presence of armed troops
has militarized the border with Mexico, and in the wake of the Hernandez
shooting, they are on the offensive. Enrique Madrid lives in Redford. He
says people there are still in shock and very angry about the military
presence.

ENRIQUE MADRID: If you can imagine the most decent young man that you know,
who had just turned 18 and you wake up one morning and you find out that
he's been shot, and not only that, but he's been shot by United States
Marines, their function is to defend us, to defend this most defenseless of
families, not tonot to assassinate them.

ENRIQUE MADRID: (speaking to group) The U.S. military and the U.S. Border
Patrol lost complete control of four Marines.

TOM BEARDEN: Madrid was part of a delegation organized by the American
Friends Service Committee that visited Washington to lobby for an
investigation. According to a press release, the committee has "worked
since 1987 to support border communities in their efforts to restrain
abusive and discriminatory treatment by U.S. authorities, and to speak out
against the militarization of the border." Among others, the delegation
visited Ohio Congressman James Traficant, who advocates more troops on the
border. He thinks the committee is using the Hernandez case to push a
broader agenda.

REP. JAMES TRAFICANT: The point is the group that came up to meet me, they
support open borders. They want people just to be able to run across the
border with no checks.

TOM BEARDEN: Traficant says the case should not affect the use of military
forces.

REP. JAMES TRAFICANT: Yes, we did have a shooting down there, and that’s a
tragic situation. That saddens me very much, and I want to know the truth
of what happened. But do we throw the FBI and the ATF out because of Ruby
Ridge and Waco? Do we disband the police department because of a wrongful
death, a wrongful shooting? I mean, lets get serious here now.

Debating the military's role

TOM BEARDEN: The Hernandez case has already had an impact. In late July,
the Pentagon ordered at all groundbased antidrug surveillance
discontinued while the policy is reviewed. That includes the type of
operation the Marines in Texas were engaged in. The military calls it an
LP/OP, which stands for Listening Post/Observation Post. Soldiers use night
vision devices like these displayed in a media demonstration to spot drug
smugglers, then notify law enforcement officers to intercept them. Troops
carry M16s for protection.

But Lawrence Korb says this is not the kind of operation envisioned when
the Reagan administration first brought the Pentagon into the drug war.
Korb was assistant secretary of defense then and is now with the Brookings
Institute.

LAWRENCE KORB: It was very controversial then. As a matter of fact, the
military resisted even doing things that would only be in a supporting role.

TOM BEARDEN: Korb says active duty soldiers are trained to fight wars, not
support law enforcement.

LAWRENCE KORB: The idea that you would have active duty forces patrolling
the border with live weapons and be asked to use those weapons if they had
to is a very far away from the idea of letting somebody from the Customs
Service ride on an aircraft, or take intelligence that you gather and
funnel it from the Department of Defense to any or the domestic law
enforcement agencies. In my view you cross the line, because you put
military people into a domestic law enforcement role, and you’ve created
situations were what happened to Corporal Banuelos and Mr. Hernandez was
almost inevitable if you kept doing it long enough.

TOM BEARDEN: The Marine who shot Hernandez was assigned to joint task force
six, which coordinates active duty units involved in the drug war. Joint
task force six would not allow us to photograph their troops in actual drug
interdiction operationsand, instead, sent us to the National Guard.
Although funded by the Defense Department, the Guard operates under
different laws and is under the control of state governors. Guardsmen are
also involved in the drug war and perform many of the same functions as
active duty soldiers. The California Guard has 450 troops assigned
fulltime to drug interdiction, and last year they helped seize over three
billion dollars worth of drugs. Guardsmen are used to working with civilian
law enforcement during civil disturbances and natural disasters. Guard
officers say this makes their soldiers better suited than active duty
troops to border operations. Even so, the Guard has stopped operating
LP/OP’s Until they get further guidance from the Pentagon. Ironically, the
California Guard had already planned to phase out LP/OP’s in favor of
longer range surveillance. This guardsman is using a surplus thermal tank
sight mounted in a vehicle to keep an eye on the border from several miles
away, negating the need and the risk of being on the front line.

ROBERT CARNEY, Senior Patrol Agent: The Guard is essential to this
operation. Of course, the Border Patrol has a critical shortage of agents
on the line. It’s very difficult for us toit takes a year and a half to
get a trained, qualified agent on the line. And what this does is it
relieves an agent who would normally be operating the same scope and it
allows him to get on the line to actually do the interdiction of drugs and
the aliens as they come into the country.

TOM BEARDEN: Other types of Guard efforts are continuing in spite of the
Hernandez case. Guard engineers are still building steel fencing and
improving access roads along the border in San Diego County. It’s difficult
work. Tripledigit desert temperatures are nearly intolerable because the
troops are required to wear bulletproof vests. That's because they’re
occasionally fired on by people on the other side. Even so, they aren't
allowed to carry weapons on this mission. They usually just stop work for a
few days and return when things settle down.

TOM BEARDEN: Captain Wade Rowley has been in charge of the project from the
beginning.

CAPTAIN WADE ROWLEY: I question the advantage of us pulling the military
forces and our tactical forces off the border. We basically have told the
drug smugglers this is a tactic that will work, if you threaten us or
something happens either on purpose or by accident from our U.S. military
or law enforcement, we as a military will pick up and run. Well, what we do
is open the doors for the drug smugglers to bring loads and loads of drugs
in because law enforcement needs our help. They can’t do all the law
enforcement on theiror they can’t provide the coverage they need on their
own.

TOM BEARDEN: Unlike the residents of Redford, Ed and Donna Tisdale welcome
the Guard. They’re eager for them to fill in the gaps in the fence. Their
ranch is right on the border about 90 minutes East of San Diego, and they
say the openings are funneling illegal aliens through their property. They
now carry guns for protection, and so do many of their neighbors.

ED TISDALE: In the lastthis is last yearsince January 1st, we’ve had
pretty close to 11,000 people through.1

DONNA TISDALE: It’s not just the people coming across. We get a lot of
drugs, and my husband’s out there having to intercept these guys on a daily
basis, simply to try and stop traffic from coming to our place, and were
worried about retaliation. I would rather have a bunch of soldiers
bivouacked on my property than have a bunch of smugglers using it at their
whim.

TOM BEARDEN: The California Guard also continues to support antidrug
operations that have nothing to no with the border. In Northern California,
the Guard provides aircraft to search for marijuana gardens hidden in the
trees on private and national forest timberlands. Armed marines also
conduct similar operations. Guardsmen on foot trek up and down 70 degree
slopes to help chop down the plants. The plots are surprisingly
sophisticated, complete with sprinkler systems on timers. When the garden
has been cleared, guardsmen bundle up the plants to be airlifted out for
destruction.

The National Guard is also active at the U.S. Mail facility in Oakland.
They inspect overseas packages for narcotics and make seizures almost
daily, like this opium found rolled up in tree bark in a package from
Thailand. Guardsmen also help U.S. Customs inspectors seize drugs concealed
in cars and trucks at the ports of entry South of San Diego.

Congressional questions

But Congress is considering a major reduction in overall funding for the
National Guard. Some of these antidrug programs may have to be eliminated.
Rudy Camacho is the director of the Southern California Customs management
Center. He thinks that would be a shame.

RUDY CAMACHO, U.S. Customs: Bottom line, if we didn't have the Guards, a
lot more drugs would get through, and it would take away a lot of the
efficiencies and effectiveness that we've been able to gain over the last
few years.

TOM BEARDEN: Instead of cutting funds for military drug operations,
Congressman Traficant is calling for a massive increase in troops.

REP. TRAFICANT: We’ve had seven Border Patrol agents that have been shot at
in the last three months. We have guerrilla warfare across our border. We
have billions and billions of dollars of industry of narcotics. And for
those people who say our military can’t handle this, I’d like to remind
them hat our military is building houses, doing carpentry work in Haiti;
they’re giving vaccinations to dogs in Haiti. They’re guarding and securing
the borders in Bosnia and in the Mideast.

TOM BEARDEN: Traficant has been trying to pass legislation that would
authorize the use of up to ten thousand additional troops on the border.

REP. SYLVESTRE REYES: I think it’s a very foolish idea.

TOM BEARDEN: Before his election to congress, Representative Sylvestre
Reyes was the chief border patrol agent in charge of the El Paso sector,
which includes Redford.

REP. SYLVESTRE REYES: I think it’s dangerous, I think it’s illadvised, and
I think ultimately it will create more problems than solving the issue of
narcotics trafficking and illegal immigration.

TOM BEARDEN: The Pentagon is also leery of the idea. Brian Sheridan is
deputy assistant secretary for special operations at the Department of
Defense.

BRIAN SHERIDAN: I don’t see how we pay for it, and also it would have a
large impact on our readiness. As you know, in this downsized military
environment that were living in, as we look at possible contingencies in
Southeast Asia, in Southwest Asia, Bosnias and other places, our military,
I think its fair to say, has been stretched. And to divert 10,000 troops to
the border doesn’t make much sense.

TOM BEARDEN: President Clinton’s drug czar, retired Army General Barry
McCaffrey, also has reservations.

GEN. BARRY MC CAFFREY: The Secretary of Defense and the Attorney General
and I and others that don’t think it’s a useful course of action, you
really can’t end up using military personnel for domestic law enforcement.
And I might add, the principal drug smuggling threat we face is through
these 38 ports of entry into the United States. Literally 85 million cars
and trucks and a half a million rail cars from our second biggest trading
partner. So that doesn’t lend itself to resolution by military combat
power, and that’s not the way to go.

TOM BEARDEN: McCaffrey plans to tour the Southwest Border region at the end
of this month as part of a policy review. He supports a gradual withdrawal
of the military as long as it’s accompanied by an increase in manpower for
law enforcement agencies. Congress has already authorized substantial
additional staffing for the Border Patrol, but training and deploying them
will take time.