MEXICAN OFFICIAL BLAMES U.S. TROOPS

A Mexican official suggested Thursday that it was American soldiers
disguised as Mexicans who were involved in an armed standoff Monday
along the Rio Grande with U.S. law-enforcement officers.

Foreign Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez said in a news conference that
U.S. soldiers have helped drug traffickers in the past, but offered
no proof in this instance.

"Members of the U.S. Army have helped protect people who were
processing and transporting drugs," Derbez said. "And just as that
has happened ... it is very probable that something like that could
have happened, that in reality they were members of some of their
groups disguised as Mexican soldiers with Humvees."

White House officials would not comment on Derbez's claim and
referred all questions to the Department of Defense.

A Defense Department spokeswoman, Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke, said
officials from both Mexico and the United States are investigating
the incident on the Texas border.

"The U.S. and Mexican government are working together to gain control
of the border and will continue to collaborate," Krenke said.

On Wednesday, U.S. Ambassador Tony Garza issued a statement asking
the Mexican government to "fully investigate" the border incident,
which The Sun's sister newspaper, the Ontario-based Inland Valley
Daily Bulletin, first reported earlier this week.

Rep. David Dreier, R-Glendora, reiterated the need for a
congressional investigation on Thursday.

"Honestly, we need to get information for everybody's understanding,"
he said. "There are stories everywhere with few answers. We need to
get to the bottom of this as soon as possible."

Dreier and Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-San Diego, jointly called for such
an investigation after the two newspapers published a Jan. 15 story
reporting more than 200 Mexican military incursions during the past
10 years, as documented by the Department of Homeland Security.

The Bulletin also obtained a 2001 map bearing the seal of the
president's Office of National Drug Control Policy and showing the
locations of 34 of those incursions.

Derbez said his country will send a diplomatic note to Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice demanding that U.S. officials tone down their
comments on Mexico's security and immigration problems.

State Department officials late Thursday said they have not received
any note from the Mexican government and thus would not comment on
Derbez's remarks.

Monday's armed standoff began 50 miles southeast of El Paso, when
Texas state police tried to stop three sport utility vehicles on
Interstate 10. The vehicles made a quick U-turn and headed south
toward the border, a few miles away.

Crossing the border, one SUV got stuck in the Rio Grande, and men in
a Humvee with a mounted gun tried in vain to tow it out. Then a group
of men in civilian clothes began unloading what appeared to be
bundles of marijuana and torched the SUV before fleeing.

Mexican officials insisted Wednesday that the men in military-style
uniforms were drug smugglers, not soldiers. In Mexico, kidnappers and
drug smugglers regularly wear police gear, which is sold at street stands.

Derbez said there was no proof that the men seen in the incident were
Mexicans and that the men photographed by Texas law enforcement could
have been Americans.

Three U.S. soldiers have pleaded guilty to running a cocaine
smuggling ring from a U.S. base in Colombia, and a fourth is being
tried in Texas this week.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.