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[In the News] Mexicans arrive...
Posted By: Inquiring mind.....
Date: Thursday, 8 September 2005, at 1:34 p.m.
Well....FINALLY! (BTW...They are the first!)
LAREDO, Texas (AP) -- A Mexican army convoy crossed into the United States on Thursday to bring aid to victims of Hurricane Katrina.
About 45 vehicles carrying 200 or so people were bound for San Antonio, carrying treatment plants, mobile kitchens and supplies to feed the displaced Louisiana victims. It is the first Mexican military unit to operate on U.S. soil since 1846.
The first green tractor-trailers, with Mexican flags attached to the tops of their cabs, crossed the international bridge at Laredo at about 8:15 a.m.
The convoy will be escorted by the U.S. Army and the Texas Department of Public Safety. It was scheduled to leave after the leader of the convoy, Gen. Francisco Ortiz Valadez, greeted the head of the U.S. Army unit in charge of the escort, Brig. Gen. F. Joseph Prasek.
The convoy includes two mobile kitchens that can feed 7,000 people a day, three flatbed trucks carrying mobile water treatment plants and 15 trailers of bottled water, blankets and applesauce. It also includes military engineers, doctors and nurses.
An estimated 97,000 hurricane refugees were staying in major Red Cross shelters in Texas since Katrina hit the Gulf Coast on Aug. 29. Thousands more were in smaller shelters, hotels or private housing, including about 5,000 in San Antonio.
The Mexican government was already planning another 12-vehicle aid convoy for this week. It has sent a Mexican navy ship heading toward the Mississippi coast with rescue vehicles and helicopters.
Mexico has sent disaster relief aid missions to other Latin American nations, but not to the United States.
In 1846, Mexican troops briefly advanced just north of the Rio Grande in Texas, which had then recently joined the United States. Mexico, however, did not then recognize the Rio Grande as the U.S. border.
The two countries quickly became mired in the Mexican-American War, which led to the loss of half of Mexico's territory in 1848.
(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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