Mexico Files Border Boundaries Complaint Over Texas’ Floating Barrier Plan on Rio Grande; Mexico Says Texan Buoys in Rio Grande Breach Water Treaty

AP Photo/Eric Gay

Mexico files border boundaries complaint over Texas’ floating barrier plan on Rio Grande:

Mexico’s top diplomat said Friday her country has sent a diplomatic note to the U.S. government expressing concern that Texas’ deployment of floating barriers on the Rio Grande may violate 1944 and 1970 treaties on boundaries and water.

Foreign Relations Secretary Alicia Bárcena said Mexico will send an inspection team to the Rio Grande to see whether any of the barrier extends into Mexico’s side of the border river.

She also complained about U.S. efforts to put up barbed wire on a low-lying island in the river near Eagle Pass, Texas.

Bárcena said that if the buoys impede the flow of water, it would violate the treaties, which requires the river remain unobstructed. Mexico has already asked that the barriers be removed.

Texas began rolling out the new floating barrier on the Rio Grande in early July. It is part of Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s multibillion-dollar effort to secure the U.S. border with Mexico, which already has included busing migrants to liberal states and authorizing the National Guard to make arrests. --->READ MORE HERE

REUTERS/Kaylee Greenlee Beal/File Photo

Mexico says Texan buoys in Rio Grande breach water treaty:

A floating barrier of orange buoys put in the Rio Grande by the Texan government to hinder migrants crossing into the U.S. violates a water treaty and may encroach on Mexican territory, incoming Mexican Foreign Minister Alicia Barcena said on Friday.

"We have sent a diplomatic letter (to the U.S.) on 26 June because in reality what it is violating is the water treaty of 1944," Barcena told reporters in Mexico City, referring to the Mexican Water Treaty between the U.S. and Mexico that covers the use of water from the Colorado, Tijuana and Rio Grande rivers.

"We are sending a mission, a territorial inspection," Barcena added, "to see where the buoys are located... to carry out this topographical survey to verify that they do not cross into Mexican territory."

The U.S. State Department and the office of Texas Governor Greg Abbott did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Barcena was named foreign minister last month but is still awaiting formal confirmation by Mexico's Senate. --->READ MORE HERE

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