Mexican military and their guns - safe?

[D_Fresh]

For instance, in the Philippines I saw police at the mall and on the street with all different uniforms, and all different weapons (one had a sweet nickel plated 1911). In India and Honduras the police/army personnel seem pretty poorly trained with no weapons discipline, constantly pointing into crowds, etc.

Yeah, here in the Philippines you see everything from rusty POS revolvers, to nickel plated 1911's, to stainless steel tactical shotguns, to M16's on a daily basis. The police usually carry a service revolver and shotgun, Security personnel carry their own supplied firearm, armored car guards carry shotguns and/or rifles.

You see the armed Guards (private company, not gov't) at nearly every major business, everywhere. But the reality is they are some of the nicest, most helpful folks around. They're always happy to point you towards your destination, or explain where the nearest restroom or smoking area is. They're really very nonthreatening unless you have a reason to be worried (i.e. you're the bad guy LOL).

 

[Manatee Diver]

When I see a Mexican Marine or QR state police officer with a weapon in clear sight it similarly gives me a sense of reassurance that they're watching out for me, my neighbors, and visitors.

If you've seen videos of their training and marksmanship you wouldn't have that sense of reassurance. In Latin American countries their militaries after often fairly well trained, but many of the police forces don't have the solid programs of marksmanship and safety that the militaries have built up over the years.

Want to see some heavy firepower? Have a look at what's being toted around Heathrow by polite young women in police uniforms. Would you avoid going to England because their airport security personnel are very heavily-armed?

The Metropolitan Police have a very good firearms program, better than a vast majority of US police agencies patrol programs and many US SWAT teams. I wouldn't worry about of them walking around with their submachine guns.

I will say it never bothers me to see military with weapons (such as in airports, or when we were in Acapulco YEARS ago walking up and down the beach)- but it sounds quite scary that they boarded a boat with hands nearly on the trigger of said weapons.

Protocol. Do it like you train, every time.

Tell that to other Coast Guard agencies. The USCG evaluates the threat and deploys the appropriate team with the appropriate level of readiness. An obvious pleasure boat putzing around, just side arms. A "go fast" boat, or a fishing boat that doesn't look like it is fishing, might get a VBSS team (think SWAT team at sea). But even they won't be raiding the boat unless they encounter resistance to boarding.

If I was smuggling for the cartel in an area containing a lot of dive boats carrying scuba divers, I'd use a boat that looked like a dive boat carrying a bunch of scuba divers. Idk, maybe others would prefer to fly a cartel flag, dress in military gear, and look like armed smugglers.

I don't imagine there is all that much smuggling traffic between PDC and Cozumel. And seeing a non-local dive boat cruising from South America northward is probably unusual enough to probably give it more attention than some random pleasure or fishing boat.

 

[driftwood]

I first visited Mexico in 1970. My grandmother was a friend of President Echeverria and we attended his inauguration. Still remember bombs going off in the city center at night. Grandmother's regular driver was detained during our visit and we had a "new and approved" driver.

Fast forward to 2000, on the ride from Cancun to PDC, I saw M16a2's carried at the airport, a motorcycle with individuals armed with Remington 870's and 5.56mm Ak's (you can tell from the curve of the magazine). Those individuals were Federal police. At military check points, the army personnel were issued what we commonly know as the HK91 but hecho en Mexico.

Along 5th ave., the state police were issued either M1a1 or M2 carbines (didn't want to look too closely), the Coast Guard were sporting M16a2's and there was this little group of "Falcons" (?) who had some ancient smg's that looked Austrian. They tended to hang around silver stores (probably because they had the best AC). Just a strange assortment of calibers depending on who one was associated with.

Things have "standardized" over 18 years and now I am seeing more beat to **** M4's

 

[scubafanatic]

What do you think the difference is that we seldom see rifle armed people at US airports when they are common in other countries?

The mods deleted my response.

 

[Hoag]

I went on a LOB in Fiji shortly after the 2007 coup. On the bus from the airport to the port where the boat was, we drove past a checkpoint. The checkpoint was a kid (couldn't have been more than 20) in uniform with an FN-FAL rifle slung over his right shoulder, a bottle of water in one hand and with his other hand he was waiving at every car that went past all this with one of the friendliest ear to ear smiles I have ever seen.

 

[BRT]

The mods deleted my response.

Sorry, you can always PM

 

[Scuba Lawyer]

Two quick stories. In the early 80s a group of about 20 of us went down to Ensenada, Mexico to dive La Bufadora. The crowds of locals and tourists were so interested in us and our dive gear that we actually had a hard time getting through the crowd and into the water. Some Federales were there and took a liking to us after we gave them a few bottles of tequila. They called in reinforcements. We had 40 machine gun toting Feds lining a path for us to walk down to the water in full dive gear. Felt like royalty.

@SamMillerlll, were you on that trip to La Bufadora? I remember it was Don Tooker that spoke enough Spanish and negotiated the "tequila deal" with the Feds.

Mark

 

[scubafanatic]

Sorry, you can always PM

Not necessarily, during the last SB redesign they scrapped the PM feature, and now everything is relating to starting a conversation ??? !!! If you check out the 'new profile posts' section on the SB front page you'll see a constant stream of folks 'private' "PM"s to each other out for public display for all to see/read, definitely NOT Private Messages anymore! The redesign was no bad there's no way it was accidental, I suspect the new 'voyeur' aspect of the redesign is a sneaky way to artificially drive site traffic as nosy folks spy on each other 'private' communications.

 

[Wookie]

Not necessarily, during the last SB redesign they scrapped the PM feature, and now everything is relating to starting a conversation ??? !!! If you check out the 'new profile posts' section on the SB front page you'll see a constant stream of folks 'private' "PM"s to each other out for public display for all to see/read, definitely NOT Private Messages anymore! The redesign was no bad there's no way it was accidental, I suspect the new 'voyeur' aspect of the redesign is a sneaky way to artificially drive site traffic as nosy folks spy on each other 'private' communications.

Actually, you are confusing chat and conversation. If you chat, everyone can see what you’re saying. If you have a conversation, your conversation is private at least from staff. I’m not sure if Pete can see it or not, but I doubt he looks for that.

 

[scubafanatic]

Actually, you are confusing chat and conversation. If you chat, everyone can see what you’re saying. If you have a conversation, your conversation is private at least from staff. I’m not sure if Pete can see it or not, but I doubt he looks for that.

Hi Frank,
All I can say is that since the redesign, what used to be super obvious/intuitive with PMs is no longer so, and I know many users out there are confused about 'chat' vs 'conversation', even right now I can see/read very personal messages between SB users who are discussing prices they're willing to pay for items listed here for sale, and I'm seeing their private e-mail addresses and tel #s when members want to call/chat on the phone with other members (for dates or buying/selling stuff, etc.) I'm doubting those folks intend to share their communications with any 3rd-parties like me or the rest of the world. There are clearly many folks who are similarly confused and don't even realize they're accidentally sharing personal details with the world. I never PM'ed all that much in the past, never anymore. The last times I tried the new system it still seemed I wasn't pushing the right button/setting any my 'PM' was still getting exposed to the world so I said 'screw it' and stopped using it. Given the world's new concerns with privacy (non stop scandals @ Facebook, etc.) I'm just surprised SB took such a big step backwards when designing their new-and-improved communication system. maybe later I'll test it out again to see if I can communicate without publishing to the whole world.