MEXICAN SOLDIERS ON DRUG DETAIL ARE CROSSING INTO U.S.

SONOYTA, Mexico - Mexico has been sending more soldiers to the U.S. border
to combat drug smuggling, and some are raising alarms on the other side by
carrying their operations into U.S. territory.

Even more worrisome, critics say, are recent shootings involving an
American tourist, a U.S. Border Patrol vehicle and migrants. They fear the
troops are overzealous and so poorly trained that they are a hazard to
innocent people in both countries.

Two of the shootings were on Mexico's side of the border, and the one on
U.S. territory happened in a remote area where the border isn't marked
well. It is along such stretches that Mexican troops have strayed onto the
U.S. side - as American officers also occasionally cross into Mexico.

Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., who has complained to Mexico's president about
the border incursions, suggests U.S. troops are needed to protect Americans
from Mexican forces.

In April, an 18-year-old Texan was wounded by a Mexican soldier as he and
his father drove across an international bridge over the Rio Grande after
visiting the Mexican city of Reynosa. Human rights activists said the
soldier fired because the car rolled over a cone marking a checkpoint and
was being driven erratically.

On May 17, a U.S. Border Patrol officer said, Mexican soldiers drove a
Humvee across the poorly marked border into the Arizona desert across from
Sonoyta and shot at his marked official car. The bullets shattered a window
of the Chevrolet Tahoe.

On June 14, a Chevrolet Suburban carrying 23 Latin Americans intending to
sneak illegally into the United States was riddled with bullets as it
headed across the Baja California desert toward the border. The group -
eight of whom were injured, including three who had to be hospitalized -
fled into the United States. They told police they believed the shots had
come from a Mexican army patrol.

Mexico's Defense Department, which won't say how many soldiers are
patrolling the 2,000-mile border, declined to comment on the shootings. The
U.S. government hasn't commented on the incidents, although the Border
Patrol says it is investigating the shooting involving its officer.

Human rights activists in Mexico say the soldiers aren't trained for police
duties and contend they are becoming overzealous and careless because the
military is immune from public scrutiny. The military has its own legal
system, and traditionally the army answers only to the presidency.