Mexican opposition legislators are up in arms
over the US Border Patrol's use of weapons firing plastic bullets
filled with pepper powder against Mexican migrants as they cross the
border illegally. Although the nonlethal weapons have been used
sporadically for at least two years, the issue was thrust into the
spotlight with a recent video shown on Mexican television of agents in
battle dress firing paint ball game-style rifles loaded with florescent
plastic pepper pellets at targets. "We will not permit these kinds of
acts that violate human rights," Sadot Sanchez, who heads the Senate's
human rights commission and is a member of PRI, the opposition
Institutional Revolutionary Party, said Wednesday. Last week, Zacatecas
state Governor Ricardo Monreal fired off a telegram to President
George Bush, describing the use of the weapon as "xenophobic and
racist" and "reminiscent of the Kristallnacht [purges] in Nazi Germany."
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