© Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch TimesTube rafts carry people and goods across the Suchiate River from Hidalgo, Mexico, to Tecun Uman, Guatemala, on June 25, 2019. Mexican National Guard troops are yet to be deployed here.
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.
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