Mexico City – A Mexican army aid convoy set out for the U.S. border Tuesday, carrying water-treatment plants, mobile kitchens and supplies to feed victims of Hurricane Katrina.
Large Mexican flags were taped to many of the 35 green- painted Mexican army trucks and tractor-trailers as they rumbled north in what apparently will be the first Mexican military unit to operate on U.S. soil since 1846.
The trucks, carrying 195 unarmed soldiers, officers and specialists, were expected to arrive in Laredo, Texas, sometime early Thursday, the president’s office said. From there they are to proceed to Houston, where they will produce water and hot meals.
The convoy included two mobile kitchens that can feed 7,000 people each per day, three flatbed trucks carrying mobile water-treatment plants, and 15 trailers of bottled water, blankets and applesauce. It also includes military engineers, doctors and nurses.
Mexican troops in 1846 briefly advanced just north of the Rio Grande in Texas, which 10 years earlier had joined the United States. Mexico, however, did not then recognize the Rio Grande as the U.S. border.
The two countries quickly became mired in the Mexican-American War, which led to the loss of half of Mexico’s territory in 1848.
Mexico sent a squadron of pilots to train in the United States in the 1940s, but they served in the Philippines in World War II.
In 1916, Pancho Villa led a group of irregular fighters in a brief raid into Columbus, N.M., in what is considered the last battle against foreign forces on U.S. soil.
Mexico was planning another 12-vehicle aid convoy to leave Tuesday or today and already has a Mexican navy ship steaming toward the Mississippi coast with rescue vehicles and helicopters.
