SAN DIEGO — With drug cartel violence escalating south of the border, Marine and Navy officials in Southern California have tightened restrictions for service members wishing to visit Mexico.
Issued Dec. 24, this latest revision to the Mexico Travel Policy requires E-6s and below — staff sergeants, first-class petty officers and Marines and sailors of lower ranks — to obtain an approved leave/liberty request, or liberty chit, from their commanding officer before traveling. It also requires that Marines and sailors in the rank of gunnery sergeant, chief petty officer and above — including officers — notify their commands if they plan to travel there.
The new rules appeared in a message issued jointly by Marine Corps Installations-West, I Marine Expeditionary Force, San Diego Marine Corps Recruit Depot/Western Recruiting Region and Navy Region Southwest. The “all-hands message” was distributed to commands west of the Mississippi, Marine Corps headquarters in Quantico, Va., and others. It says personnel traveling to Mexico must:
• Use “the buddy system” and denote the name of that person on their liberty chit.
• Get a security brief and be current on “Level I” antiterrorism training. The class can be given by a Level II training officer or taken online at
www.at-awareness.org.
• Register with the U.S. consulate in Mexico. That can be done online.
Prompted by the rise in murders and violence in Mexico’s northern border regions, Marine and Navy officials met with members of the Mexican Consul’s office Dec. 17. In recent months, Mexican military personnel and police have confronted drug-trafficking organizations using automatic weapons, grenades and rocket-propelled grenades, officials said in the message.
Authorities have nabbed some senior cartel members, but the ongoing drug war left more than 5,700 people dead last year, more than double the number of deaths attributed to the cartels in 2007, according to Stratfor, a geopolitical intelligence firm based in Austin, Texas.
Officials want unit commanders to maintain a roster of personnel traveling to Mexico, and the policy allows subordinate commanders to order even stricter rules, such as requiring liberty chits for all ranks, including officers.
In addition, each command must submit, by Jan. 15, a list of service members with immediate relatives living in Mexico. The new rules won’t restrict travel into Mexico for those service members who reside there or have immediate family members living in northern border cities. However, they “will inform their chain of command of their residence and contact information,” the message states.
