Troops Pulled From AntiDrug Patrols

Pentagon Action Rises Out of Killing of Border Resident by Marine

By Sue Anne Pressley
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 30, 1997; Page A16
The Washington Post

AUSTIN, Tex., July 29‹All U.S. ground troops involved in the
antidrug effort along the U.S.Mexican border have been pulled
from patrol work indefinitely, in a move Pentagon officials said was
prompted by the controversial Marine shooting of a young Texas
man in May.

"The entire policy is now under review," Pentagon spokesman
Kenneth Bacon said today, "and that review has several elements in
it. One is whether it's appropriate for troops to be involved in
border patrol activities. Another is, if it is appropriate for them to be
involved in border patrol activities, what are the proper operating
procedures for them? . . . And another question is, do they have
adequate legal protections?"

Withdrawal of all 240 military personnel along the 2,000mile
border came as a Presidio County grand jury in Marfa begins hearing
witnesses this week in the death of Ezequiel Hernandez Jr., 18, of
Redford, Tex. Hernandez, by all accounts a hardworking, focused
youth who was wellliked in his border town about 180 miles
southeast of El Paso, was killed May 20 by the leader of a
camouflaged Marine patrol unit assigned to monitor
drugtrafficking routes into the United States.

Although the military has defended the Marine, saying he fired in
selfdefense after Hernandez fired his .22caliber rifle twice in the
about to fire again when he collapsed, that account has been sharply
challenged by family, neighbors, and other border residents. Hernandez's
family said the youth was carrying the rifle to protect the goats he was herding
as part of a church project, and sometimes shot at targets, but that he would
never have opened fire on the Marines.

Immediately after the shooting, the military's Joint Task Force 6 in El Paso,
which sometimes deployed small teams of three or four to help spot
smugglers, suspended operations in the section that includes Redford. Earlier
this month, Lt. Gen. Carlton W. Fulford, commander of the 1st Marine
Expeditionary Force at Camp Pendleton, Calif., said he was satisfied Marine
Cpl. Clemente Banuelos had done nothing wrong. But Fulford also said the
killing might not have happened had civilian law enforcement agencies
patrolled the border. Hernandez's death marked the first time a U.S.
citizen has been shot by a member of a military drugsurveillance team, and
has thrown wide open the controversial issue of how involved the military
efforts along the border.

Bacon said today that "the military is very committed to providing support to
the war on drugs. I think we provide about between eight hundred million
and a billion dollars worth of support a year to the war. . . . We perform
mainly reconnaissance, listening, observation activities."

He said the suspension of troop operations hardly means the U.S.Mexican
border is unprotected since the Immigration and Naturalization Service's
Border Patrol is mainly responsible for guarding the border. "Right now there
are a small number of people who would have been patrolling the border
[who] are not patrolling the border," he said. "There are still many more
people in the Border Patrol patrolling the border. There were always more
people in the Border Patrol. . . . That's their job. They continue to perform
that job. So the border is not unguarded."

Critics of the military patrols today applauded withdrawal of the troops.

"It's a good first step," said Kevin Zeese, president of Common Sense for Drug
Policy, a D.C.based group that looks at drugpolicy alternatives. "I hope when
they review their policy, a demilitarized border with Mexico makes the most
sense. Because we are not at war with Mexico."

Zeese said his group funded a private investigation of the Hernandez shooting
at the request of the Redford Citizens Committee for Justice, a group that
includes the youth's family and friends. Among the investigation's findings,
released today, were reports that some residents said they heard only one shot
that evening, challenging the account presented by the Marines. There also is
concern that no ballistic report estimating the last time Hernandez's rifle was
fired has been released by police agencies, and that residents of Presidio County
were not made aware that Marines were patrolling the area.

In a letter sent today to Presidio County District Attorney Albert Valadez, who
is conducting the grand jury, members of the citizens committee stressed,
however, that they hoped Banuelos would not be made a scapegoat. "This
community has been grievously wounded by the actions of Cpl. Banuelos and
his team," the letter said. "Nevertheless, the community feels that there are
others in the chain of command . . . who should be sought out and made to
admit responsibility for the sorry desecration of traditional American values."

@CAPTION: Friends and family visit at Baptist Church in Redford, Tex., after
the shooting.

@CAPTION: Ezequiel Hernandez Jr., 18, was killed by Marine patrol while
tending goats.

© Copyright 1997 The Washington Post Company