'BOILING POINT' EXERCISE TESTS COMMUNICATIONS

When an emergency situation occurs, it's essential that responders
work together in areas such as communication, planning and operations.

Working together was the focus of an exercise Thursday in which 22
agencies, including the Mexican federal police, sought ways to better
respond to violence along the border.

A recent shootout on the Mexican side of the border, in which a bullet
landed at UTEP, served to underscore the benefits of "Exercise Boiling
Point."

There seemed to be a bit of disagreement between Mexican and American
officials about whether the exercise was a response to deepening drug
violence in Juarez. Mexican officials said violence wasn't the reason.

More likely is what Michael Przybyl, acting chief of the Border Patrol
in the El Paso Sector, said. He noted that the exercise was necessary
because of the "increase in drug violence" and during "critical times
where the violence has increased exponentially."

The drug violence is a reality and it must be addresses on both sides
of the border. Mexican and American authorities must be able to
communicate and cooperate in the case of an incident, to protect
citizens on both sides of the border and to prevent any incident from
escalating and getting out of hand.

During Exercise Boiling Point, some problems were discovered. For
example, Mexican authorities refer to the international bridges by
different names that we do on this side of the border. What's called
the Bridge of the Americas here is called the Cordova Bridge in
Mexico. That could lead to confusion during a border incident.

Border Patrol spokesman Ramiro Cordero said, "We did find some -- I
don't want to call them flaws -- but some areas that needed a little
bit of improvement and we discussed those and, of course, they had to
do with communication."

In the best of times, effective binational communication is important.
In violent times, it's vital for the lives of people on both sides of
the border.