Mexican Pres. Rejects Trump Aid Offer  11/19 06:13

   

   MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Mexico's president on Tuesday ruled out allowing U.S. 
strikes against cartels on Mexican soil, a day after U.S. President Donald 
Trump said he was willing to do whatever it takes to stop drugs entering the 
U.S.

   "It's not going to happen," President Claudia Sheinbaum said.

   "He (Trump) has suggested it on various occasions or he has said, 'we offer 
you a United States military intervention in Mexico, whatever you need to fight 
the criminal groups,'" she said. "But I have told him on every occasion that we 
can collaborate, that they can help us with information they have, but that we 
operate in our territory, that we do not accept any intervention by a foreign 
government."

   Sheinbaum said she had said this to Trump and to U.S. Secretary of State 
Marco Rubio on previous occasions and that they have understood.

   "Would I want strikes in Mexico to stop drugs? OK with me, whatever we have 
to do to stop drugs," Trump said Monday, adding that he's "not happy with 
Mexico."

   The U.S. Embassy in Mexico shared a video on X later Monday that included 
previous comments from Rubio saying that the U.S. would not take unilateral 
action in Mexico.

   Meanwhile, Mexican and U.S. diplomats were trying to sort out Tuesday what 
may have been an actual U.S. incursion.

   On Monday, men arrived in a boat at a beach in northeast Mexico and 
installed some signs signaling land that the U.S. Department of Defense 
considered restricted.

   Mexico's Foreign Affairs Ministry said late Monday that the country's navy 
had removed the signs, which appeared to be on Mexican territory. And on 
Tuesday, Sheinbaum said that the International Boundary and Water Commission, a 
binational agency that determines the border between the two countries, was 
getting involved.

   The signs, driven into the sand near where the Rio Grande empties into the 
Gulf of Mexico, caused a stir when witnesses said men in a boat arrived at the 
local beach known as Playa Bagdad and erected them.

   The signs read in English and Spanish, "Warning: Restricted Area" and went 
on to explain that it was Department of Defense property and had been declared 
restricted by "the commander." It said there could be no unauthorized access, 
photography or drawings of the area.

   The U.S. Embassy in Mexico shared a comment from the Pentagon Tuesday about 
the incident, confirming that contractors putting up signs to mark the 
"National Defense Area III" had placed signs at the mouth of the Rio Grande.

   "Changes in water depth and topography altered the perception of the 
international boundary's location," the statement said. "Government of Mexico 
personnel removed 6 signs based on their perception of the international 
boundary's location."

   The Pentagon said the contractors would "coordinate with appropriate 
agencies to avoid confusion in the future."

   Mexico had contacted its consulate in Brownsville, Texas and then the U.S. 
Embassy in Mexico City. Eventually, it was determined that contractors working 
for some U.S. government entity had placed the signs, Sheinbaum said.

   "But the river changes its course, it breaks loose and according to the 
treaty you have to clearly demarcate the national border," Sheinbaum said 
during her daily press briefing.

   The area is close to SpaceX Starbase, which sits adjacent to Boca Chica 
Beach on the Texas side of the Rio Grande.

   The facility and launch site for the SpaceX rocket program is under contract 
with the Department of Defense and NASA, which hopes to send astronauts back to 
the moon and someday to Mars.

   In June, Sheinbaum said the government was looking into contamination from 
the SpaceX facility after pieces of metal, plastic and rocket pieces were 
reportedly found on the Mexican side of the border following the explosion of a 
rocket during a test.

   The area also carries the added sensitivity of Trump's order to rename the 
Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, which Mexico has also rejected.