Epoch Times:

TECUN UMAN, Guatemala—One of the busiest border crossings between Mexico and Guatemala has yet to see Mexican National Guard troops. In the southeast of Mexico, across the Suchiate River, goods and people flow all day long between the two countries.

But there is still no sign of the 6,000 troops that the Mexican government said it would deploy after President Donald Trump threatened to impose escalating tariffs if Mexico did not move to secure its southern border.

The tariffs were set to start on June 10, but Mexican officials averted them with an agreement that included a promise to secure its 540-mile southern border with Guatemala.

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said a new National Guard force will be formed by June 30, of which 6,000 troops will be posted to the Mexico–Guatemala border. The National Guard will consist of members from Mexico’s military police, naval police, federal police, and the National Migration Institute, according to Luis Crescencio Sandoval González, Mexico’s secretary of defense.

“We are covering the southern border, and we are helping with the effort of the National Institute of Migration, which now has the power to be securing people, and we are supporting them to be able to carry out this activity,” González said at a press conference on June 24.

On June 21, Marcelo Ebrard Casaubon, Mexico’s foreign affairs secretary, said the National Guard deployment of 6,000 troops is complete.

“The National Guard is going to be in the southeast of the country—it’s going to cover the whole country, but the south of the country is going to be a priority,” Casaubon said.

But in the southeast of Mexico, the shores of the Suchiate River by Hidalgo City are void of military might.

Eduardo Gallardo Gonzalez, secretary of the department of municipal protection in Suchiate, Hidalgo City, said they are still expecting the National Guard. read more