https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-01-29/pentagon-send-thousands-troops-mexico-border-wall-talks-begin
Hours before talks with Dems on a border security compromise were set to begin, the Pentagon announced that it’s planning to send thousands of troops to the US border.
The troops will augment the roughly 3,000 US troops that are currently deployed at the border. These troops are serving in primarily support roles like assisting border patrol agents and offering logistical assistance thanks to a federal law that prevents the military from carrying out law enforcement functions within the US’s borders.
My take: They may be watching this closely:
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-01-28/mexico-starting-look-venezuela
(O)il thieves have been drilling holes in Mexico’s extensive network of oil and gas piplelines across the country to steal fuel and sell it on the black market.
State-owned oil company PEMEX found more than 12,500 illegal holes in the pipelines last year.
And these oil thieves went as far as building a 2-mile long pipe themselves to divert oil directly from the refineries.
Selling oil on the secondary market is a highly lucrative business in Mexico. And some farmers who take up a job as lookouts for the thieves can earnmore than five times their regular income doing so.
The work is also incredibly dangerous… more than 80 people recently died in a pipeline explosion north of Mexico City when they were trying to siphon off gas.
But Mexico’s new president has decided to do something about this.
And in typical, political brilliance, he ordered the pipelines to be shut down.
So now, instead of transporting oil and gas via pipelines, they’ll ship everything via truck and rail.
There are only a few TINY issues with that solution: it costs up to 14 times more to send fuel via trucks. And more importantly, it takes weeks longer to arrive at the stations.
The result? Severe gasoline shortages.
Across the entire country, including in the biggest cities of Mexico City and Guadalajara, more than 1,000 gas stations have been closed. Many of those still open have limited purchases of gas up to five gallons per person.
And the lines to get to them can reach up to a mile-long.
People have now started hoarding gasoline and re-selling it on the black market.
So much for cracking down on oil theft.
The result is millions of people with no access to gas. They cannot go to work, see their families, or go about their lives as they did just a few days ago.
It’s almost starting to look like Venezuela – the storybook example of what happens to a country gripped by corrupt socialism.
If Mexico is on the verge of chaos, we certainly want to contain it.
