Source: Chicago Tribune (IL)
Copyright: 1999 Chicago Tribune Company
Website: http://www.chicagotribune.com/
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Contact:  Thu, 28 Jan 1999
Author:  Douglas Holt

PENTAGON HALTS ROUTINE USE OF TROOPS FOR ANTI-DRUG BORDER PATROLS

After the shooting death of a young goat herder by a U.S. Marine, the
Pentagon has ordered an end to routine use of ground troops for anti-drug
missions along the Mexican border, a Defense Department official said
Wednesday.

Under a new policy, armed troops may be deployed only with specific
permission of the secretary of defense or his deputy, said Lt. Col. Mike
Milord, a Defense Department spokesman.

Defense Secretary William Cohen had suspended the use of armed troops on
U.S. soil in July 1997. The new policy replaces the suspension. The
decision was reached in October but not made public until Wednesday.

From 1989 to 1997, ground troops conducted 799 anti-drug missions
coordinated by an El Paso-based joint task force.

The change is "to ensure all the counter-drug activities receive the
appropriate level of oversight," Milord said.

Esequiel Hernandez Jr., 18, who lived in the tiny border town of Redford,
Texas, was fatally shot on May 20, 1997. He had been grazing his family's
goats near the Rio Grande River, armed as usual with a .22-caliber rifle to
ward off predators.

A four-man Marine unit, just ending a three-day covert observation mission,
radioed for help after saying Hernandez shot at them from about 200 yards
away. Marine Cpl. Clemente M. Banuelos said he fired the fatal shot after
Hernandez raised his rifle again to shoot at the Marines.

"I saw the guy aim at one of my men, so I (expletive) capped him," Banuelos
said during questioning by the FBI and Texas Rangers, according to
documents released in December by U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas).
Corroborating statements by two other Marines "were simply not credible,"
according to documents in Smith's report.

A Justice Department civil rights inquiry ended without charges last
February, partly because a Marine command post had authorized Banuelos to
shoot.

A Marine Corps probe blamed "systemic failures at every level" during the
mission. Two grand juries looked into the shooting but issued no
indictments.

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