Mexican authorities confirmed Thursday that they recovered two bodies from the Rio Grande. Authorities recovered one of many our bodies, a Mexican nationwide, from buoys lately floated by Texas in an effort to sluggish border crossings from Mexico. The second physique, a Honduran nationwide, was recovered additional upstream, away from the buoys. The incidents have renewed consideration on the floating barrier, which is now the topic of a lawsuit between the US Division of Justice (DOJ) and the state of Texas.
In response to the restoration of the 2 our bodies, Mexican President Andres Manuel López Obrador called the buoys “inhumane.” He and different Mexican authorities preserve that Texas’s set up of the buoys violates Mexico’s sovereignty. They proceed to quote two treaties, the Water Treaty of 1944 and the Boundary Treaty of 1970. The 2 treaties govern the water that separates Mexico and the US, such because the Rio Grande. Any interference with the water’s circulation, together with the buoys, probably violates the treaties.
Mexican authorities additionally proceed to assert that the buoys threaten the human rights and security of migrants passing by the Rio Grande—a name echoed by Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Friday.
In a statement to the press, Director of the Texas Division of Public Security Steve McCraw, dismissed considerations that the deaths have been associated to the buoys. McCraw mentioned, “[P]reliminary info suggests [the second discovered body] drowned upstream from the marine barrier and floated into the buoys.” A spokesperson for Texas Governor Greg Abbott doubled down on McCraw’s assertion, saying that the Mexican authorities is “flat-out improper.”
The buoys are at the moment the topic of a lawsuit between the DOJ and the state of Texas. The DOJ alleged that Texas violated the Rivers and Harbors Act by failing to acquire federal authorization for the buoys previous to their set up. Like Mexico and HRW, the DOJ additionally voiced human rights and public security considerations over the buoys. In response to DOJ’s lawsuit, Abbott indicated the buoys would stay in place, writing, “Mr. President, Texas will see you in court docket.”
A spokesperson for Abbott mentioned on Thursday that Texas border authorities proceed to observe the buoys for any tried crossing. They declare that, as of the time of the invention of the 2 our bodies, Texas border authorities have “not noticed anybody trying to cross.”
