MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - More than 100 Central American migrants, including dozens of minors, were found crowded inside a sweltering truck without food or water in Mexico en route to the United States, authorities said on Friday.

The 136 migrants, from Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua, were rescued in the violent southeastern state of Veracruz after 24 hours in temperatures above 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 Celsius), Mexico’s migration institute INM said.

Tens of thousands of Central Americans fleeing violence and poverty in their homelands aim to pass through Mexico to the United States every year, often transported by human traffickers who subject them to perilous conditions.

More than 800 Central American migrants have been found in truck trailers or safe houses in Mexico so far this year, according to a government document seen by Reuters.

Border apprehensions fell when U.S. President Donald Trump took office last year and vowed to stamp out illegal immigration, suggesting fewer crossing attempts, but have picked up in recent months.

The migrants in Veracruz were discovered by federal police and migration agents who heard cries for help from within the truck, which had been abandoned near a freeway.

Authorities said they counted 49 minors among the group, 13 of whom were traveling alone and will receive aid to apply for refugee status in Mexico. The adults, as well as the accompanied children, will be sent back to their home countries.

Last month, 103 Central Americans, including 36 minors, were rescued from an abandoned truck in the violent northern state of Tamaulipas, where migrants often attempt illegal border crossings.

In July, 10 people died after a truck stuffed with more than 100 Guatemalan and Mexican migrants was abandoned in a Texas parking lot.</s>Mexico's Federal Police intercepted 136 undocumented Central American migrants in the Gulf coast state of Veracruz, including 49 minors, the National Migration Institute (INM) said Friday.

The migrants were found in a freight trailer and police arrested the driver.</s>The beautiful game has suffered its fair share of controversies over the years, whether that be corruption in FIFA, Maradona's infamous 'Hand of God' and even how Qatar got the World Cup in 2022. However, what happened after a match between Honduras and El Salvador pales all of football's other misdemeanours into insignificance.

'The Football War' as it is commonly known, occurred between the Central American countries El Salvador and Honduras following the countries' World Cup qualifiers in 1969.

Now, a war didn't just erupt solely due to a game of football - there were other circumstances. There were a host of issues at the root of the troubles, including disputes over migration, trade and land across the border of the two states, and social unrest followed.

The two countries were both under military dictatorships, and a strain on resources led 300,000 Salvadorans to cross the border into Honduras. Tension was fiercely growing, and amid all the political unrest between the two countries, you'd be forgiven for thinking that a simple game of football might facilitate diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Well, this was not to be the case. Football was the match (pardon the pun) that ignited the flame.

El Salvador and Honduras were playing in a best-of-three World Cup qualifier to see who would progress. The first game in the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa witnessed minor disturbances following the host's 1-0 victory, but things worsened significantly come the second match.

The visiting Honduran players suffered a sleepless night before the game as rotten eggs, dead rats and a host of other distasteful items were thrown through the broken windows of their dilapidated hotel. Come the game itself, things managed to deteriorate even more. The away fans were attacked at the game, and the Honduran flag and national anthem were mocked.

Honduras inevitably lost the game 3-0, with their manager, Mario Griffin, citing the disturbances for the reason as to why they suffered defeat. Rather than focusing on the game itself, "the players had their minds on getting out alive", according to Griffin.

It was therefore 1-1 in the series, and the victor of the third game would go the the 1970 World Cup. Tension mounted before decisive third match in Mexico, but on June 27th, the day of the play-off, Honduras broke off diplomatic relations with their neighbours.

The carnage was at fever-pitch, but El Salvador eventually triumphed 3-2 after extra time. Only two days later, however, El Salvador had invaded Honduras.

A ceasefire was negotiated on July 20th, but the damage was already done. Between 1000 and 2000 people lost their lives, and 100,000 more had become refugees. El Salvador withdrew their troops in August, but it took 11 years for a formal peace treaty between the two nations to be agreed.

Trade between the two nations had been totally disrupted and the border closed, damaging the economies of both nations and threatening the future of the Central American Common Market. A civil war then broke out in El Salvador in 1980, and the conflict would last 12 years before the International Court of Justice awarded much of the originally disputed territory to the Honduras.

Over the years, football has provided a reminder that we are all similar who hold similar values. Football was used as a method of peace during World War One, when soldiers from Germany and Britain enjoyed a football match against each other on Christmas Day.

In addition, football star Didier Drogba even used his hero status to stop a civil war in his home country of Cote D'Ivoire. Even two years prior to the football war, the sport was used as a ceasefire in the Biafran war. The opposing sides declared a two-day truce in September 1967 so that they could watch the magic of Pele and his touring Santos team play in two exhibition matches.

The World Cup play-offs between El Salvador and Honduras in 1969 did indeed cause a conflict, but such a war would never had happened if the underlying tensions had never been there.

We all know that in the heat of the moment, football can seem like life and death, but in reality it is just a game. The events of 1969 should never have occurred, and thankfully, such conflict would never happen in the 21st Century as a result of our sport.

Well, let's just hope the US and North Korea don't play each other any time soon.</s>The United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency says its Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) officers have arrested “271 aliens as part of an enforcement action targeting immigration violators and those who pose a threat to public safety.”

On Wednesday, ICE said that the enforcement action ran from March 18 – 22. ERO officers made the arrests across the state of Florida, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands (USVI).

The Enforcement agency in a released statement posited that the immigrants who were arrested came from 36 countries: Afghanistan, Albania, Angola, Anguilla, Bahamas, Bosnia, Brazil, Burma, Cambodia, Chile, Canada, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, Israel, Jamaica, Kuwait, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Spain, Turkey and United Kingdom.

Moreover, it was outlined that out of the 271 immigrants “99 had criminal records that included felony convictions for serious or violent offenses, such as 1st degree murder, attempted murder, vehicular manslaughter, rape, aggravated assault, attempted robbery, battery, burglary, child neglect, cruelty toward a child, domestic violence, drugs charges such as possession and trafficking, weapons offenses and abuse of the elderly.”

ICE said the arrests took place in 23 Florida counties, “including 76 in Miami Dade, 65 in Broward, 27 in Duval, 17 in Palm Beach, 14 in Hillsborough, 10 in Orange, seven in Seminole, five in Manatee, five in Lee, four in Pinellas, four in Brevard, three in Polk, three in Indian River, two in Volusia, two in Bay, two in Martin, one in Escambia, one in Gadsden, one in Lake, one in Osceola, one in Sarasota, one in St Lucie, one in Suwannee, 11 in Puerto Rico, and seven in the USVI.”

The agency noted that during the operations, ERO was supported by ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), U.S. Customs and Border Protection and other federal and local law enforcement agencies, including the Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service.

According to the ICE agency, “arrested individuals who have outstanding orders of deportation, or who returned to the United States illegally after being deported, are subject to immediate removal from the country. The remaining individuals are in ICE custody awaiting a hearing before an immigration judge, or pending travel arrangements for removal.”

Additionally, it was also outlined that the “targeted individuals in this operation were amenable to arrest and removal under the Immigration and Nationality Act.”</s>About 80% of them are from Honduras. Many said they are fleeing poverty, but also political unrest and violence that followed the swearing in of Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez after a highly contested election last year. The group often breaks into chants of "Out with JOH." They also chant "we aren't immigrants, we're international workers" and "the people united will never be defeated."

The number of people who showed up to travel with the caravan caught organizers by surprise, and overwhelmed the various towns they've stopped in to spend the night. Pueblos Sin Fronteras counted about 1,200 people on the first day.

When they get to the US, they hope American authorities will grant them asylum or, for some, be absent when they attempt to cross the border illegally. More likely is that it will set up an enormous challenge to the Trump administration's immigration policies and its ability to deal with an organized group of migrants numbering in the hundreds.

"If we all protect each other we'll get through this together," Abeja yelled through a loudspeaker on the morning they left Tapachula, on Mexico's border with Guatemala, for the nearly monthlong trek.

Organizers like Rodrigo Abeja hope that the sheer size of the crowd will give immigration authorities and criminals pause before trying to stop them.

Organized by a group of volunteers called Pueblos Sin Fronteras, or People Without Borders, the caravan is intended to help migrants safely reach the United States, not only bypassing authorities who would seek to deport them, but gangs and cartels who are known to assault vulnerable migrants.

For five days now hundreds of Central Americans — children, women and men, most of them from Honduras — have boldly crossed immigration check points, military bases, and police in a desperate, sometimes chaotic march toward the United States. Despite being in Mexico without authorization, no one has made any effort to stop them.

When the agent, who'd covered her uniform with an orange and white shawl, learned that the Central Americans migrants heading her way numbered more than 1,000, she took off for the restaurant across the street.

Taking a drag from her cigarette, a Mexican immigration agent looked out toward a caravan of migrants that grew larger with each step they took on the two-lane highway.

Migrants hitchhike along the side of the highway as they move towards the city of Mapastepec, Chiapas.

Sweating after miles of walking in more than 90-degree heat with her two kids, Karen said conditions in Honduras were so bad she decided to take a chance with the caravan. She declined to give her full name.



"The crime rate is horrible you can't live there," Karen told BuzzFeed News on the side of a highway near Huixtla, a town in Chiapas, Mexico's southernmost state. "After the president (was sworn in) it got worse. There were deaths, mobs, robbed homes, adults and kids were beaten up."

Before setting foot on the journey, the migrants were organized into groups of 10 to 15 people, and a leader was designated for each group. Five groups were then banded together in what organizers call a sector. While there are organizers from Pueblos Sin Fronteras leading the way, much of the effort to get to the US border is in the hands of the migrants themselves.

They've been organized into security, food, and logistics committees. Organizers say it's meant to help the migrants empower themselves.

Sandra Perez, 40, who's also from Honduras, is one of two women who belong to the security committee. It's not her first caravan, she has traveled with a procession of Central American mothers through Mexico in search of disappeared migrants.

"I like doing this, it makes me happy and I feel useful," she told BuzzFeed News.

Twenty-nine-year old Mateo Juan said the caravan was his third attempt at getting to the United States. Seven months ago, Mexican immigration officers pulled him off the bus. The same happened about a month ago.

He heard about the caravan in March when he arrived in Tapachula, the caravan's starting point.

"Going alone is risky, you're risking an accident, getting jumped by robbers, and even your life," he told BuzzFeed News. "All of that, and then you don't get to the United States. The caravan is slower but you know you're going to get there safely."

Still, there are no guarantees on the route or assurances that once they reach the US border they'll be able to cross undetected or be allowed to stay under some type of protection like asylum.

Alex Mensing, another organizer with Pueblos Sin Fronteras, made that point clear to the migrants before the group started out. He also stressed that everyone is responsible for their own food, water, and payment for vans or buses. Still, it's far cheaper than being assaulted or falling into the hands of unscrupulous smugglers.

"I'm here to work together with the people who had to leave their countries for whatever reason," Mensing said through a loudspeaker. "We're fighting together. We're not here to give anyone papers and we're not here to give anyone food."

Mensing said Pueblos Sin Fronteras isn't calling on people to make the trek, but if they're going to try to go through Mexico on the way to the United States, the group will help them.

The caravan propels itself forward using whatever way it can. Sometimes that means packing into the back of a truck, negotiating lower rates for vans, or hitching a ride on the back of empty big rigs from whatever town they're in. The group sleeps in town plazas. Local townspeople and churches feed them.

In the evening, when the group settles in for the night, the kids play in playgrounds or dart among the crowd, chasing each other. Teenagers and adults play soccer using rocks as goal posts.

On Tuesday, the caravan had plans to board the freight train known as "The Beast" or sometimes "The Train of Death" in Arriaga to speed the journey north. It's a dangerous part of the journey, with death and injury only too possible from a precarious perch atop a rail car, and the group practiced boarding, one woman in a purple shirt slowly making her way up a parked train's ladder while the crowd below cheered her on. On another train car, men wearing backpacks steadily made their way up one by one.</s>Wal-mart de Mexico S A B de C V (OTCMKTS: WMMVY) and Dave & Buster’s (NASDAQ:PLAY) are both retail/wholesale companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, risk, valuation, analyst recommendations, profitability, institutional ownership and earnings.

0.1% of Wal-mart de Mexico S A B de C V shares are held by institutional investors. 3.8% of Dave & Buster’s shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Wal-mart de Mexico S A B de C V pays an annual dividend of $0.21 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.8%. Dave & Buster’s does not pay a dividend. Wal-mart de Mexico S A B de C V pays out 28.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

This table compares Wal-mart de Mexico S A B de C V and Dave & Buster’s’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

Wal-mart de Mexico S A B de C V has a beta of 0.75, suggesting that its share price is 25% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Dave & Buster’s has a beta of 0.36, suggesting that its share price is 64% less volatile than the S&P 500.

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Wal-mart de Mexico S A B de C V and Dave & Buster’s, as reported by MarketBeat.

Dave & Buster’s has a consensus target price of $67.33, indicating a potential upside of 59.37%. Given Dave & Buster’s’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Dave & Buster’s is more favorable than Wal-mart de Mexico S A B de C V.

This table compares Wal-mart de Mexico S A B de C V and Dave & Buster’s’ gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

Wal-mart de Mexico S A B de C V has higher revenue and earnings than Dave & Buster’s. Dave & Buster’s is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Wal-mart de Mexico S A B de C V, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Dave & Buster’s beats Wal-mart de Mexico S A B de C V on 9 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

Wal Mart de Mexico SAB de CV is a Mexico-based company engaged in operating self-service stores. The Company’s segments include Mexico and Central America. In Mexico, the Company operates through Self-service, which includes the operation of discount stores, hypermarkets, wholesale-price membership stores and supermarkets, and Others, which includes department stores and real estate transactions with third parties. In Central America, it operates discount stores, supermarkets, hypermarkets, warehouse stores and wholesale-price membership stores in Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador. It offers products in a range of categories, such as food, consumables, general merchandise and apparel. It offers products under various brand names, including Bodega Aurrera Express, Walmart, Sam’s Club, Superama, Suburbia and Medimart Pharmacies. The Company also operates e-commerce business in Mexico. It is controlled by Wal Mart Stores Inc.

Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc. owns and operates entertainment and dining venues for adults and families in North America. Its venues offer a menu of ?Fun American New Gourmet' entrées and appetizers, as well as a selection of non-alcoholic and alcoholic beverages; and an assortment of entertainment attractions centered on playing games and watching live sports, and other televised events. The company operates its venues under the Dave & Buster's name. As of December 5, 2017, it owned and operated 105 stores in 36 states and Canada. The company was founded in 1982 and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas.

Receive News & Ratings for Wal-mart de Mexico S A B de C V Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Wal-mart de Mexico S A B de C V and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter.</s>A caravan of more than 1,500 families including men, women, and children are making their way from Central America through Mexico and are expected to arrive at the US-Mexico Border in the coming days to request refugee status.

Known as the Viacrucis Migrante 2018, the caravan began on March 25 in the state of Chiapas and is expected to reach Tijuana within a month where the members of the group are expected to request refugee status from the U.S. government. The caravan is organized by the immigrant rights group Pueblo Sin Fronteras who have been posting updates about the caravan’s journey through Mexico.

The group is reportedly made up of families from Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras who are fleeing extreme poverty and gang violence. The group has been demanding a stop to the violence.

While the group is made up primarily of individuals who could be considered undocumented by Mexican authorities, officials have stepped aside, Mexico’s El Universal reported. Additionally, the group has been thankful to the local governments in various rural communities in southern Mexico for helping the caravan by providing transportation, food, and other aid.

The push to the border comes at a time the Trump administration has clashed with the Mexican government over their apparent leniency when dealing with drug cartels, border security, and the payment of walls.

Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded the Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and Stephen K. Bannon. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com.

Brandon Darby is managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded the Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and Stephen K. Bannon. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.</s>President Donald Trump is quietly sending a small population of Liberians back home after 20-plus years of temporary residency in the United States.

On Tuesday, Trump ended the so-called “Deferred Enforced Departure” status of a small population of Liberians who were allowed to stay in the United States for more than a decade after the expiration of their “Temporary Protected Status” in 2007.

The policy likely means that roughly 1,000 Liberians will be sent home because many of the original group of Liberians have managed to get green cards and residency in the decades since their arrival. According to Politico, only 840 resident Liberians get work permits via the expiring program.

The policy is part of Trump’s clean-up of various tangled programs for migrants and refugees. Since 2017, he has ended supposedly temporary residency programs for roughly 325,000 foreigners who have been living in the United Stimes, sometimes for more than two decades. Their gradual departure will shrink the nation’s economy by a very small amount, but will also open up more than 100,000 jobs for disadvantaged Americans.

The Liberians got TPS status in 1991 to help them stay out of the African country’s civil war. The war gradually ended, so the TPS status was ended in 2007. But former President George W. Bush offered the Liberians the DED status, and former President Barack Obama extended their DED status twice during his eight-year term.

Some of the homeward-bound Liberians are now objecting to their long-delayed departure, due by March 31, 2019. ABC News reported:

One Liberian beneficiary told ABC News that President Trump’s decision is “unacceptable”:

“To see that Liberians in the United States have stabilized their lives — and I think that’s part of the American Dream and the pursuit of happiness — and still uproot us and send us back to Liberia will force us to become refugees all over again,” said Caroline Grimes, a DED recipient in Minnesota. “We must let Donald Trump know that this decision is unacceptable.”

Open-border Democrats also objected to foreigners being asked to leave the United States. “To ask people who have been here since the late 1990’s to leave is harsh, cruel, and disgusting,” Patrice Lawrence, policy director of UndocuBlack Network, told ABC News. “We see this administration’s relentless anti-immigrant policy and rhetoric as a concerted effort to make every immigrant undocumented.”

With termination of Liberian DED, Trump continues to feed the mass deportation beast. Let’s be clear. Trump and his sidekick, DHS Secretary Nielsen, are intent on driving millions of immigrants out of the country. When it comes to putting immigrants on a path to deportation, it doesn’t seem to matter how long they’ve been here, the conditions they fled in the first place, the contributions they have made or the impact on their families, employers and communities, or the fact that they’ve had legal status for years and years. The bottom line seems to be this: get ready to get out; this is especially true if you are from what the President calls “shithole countries.”

Liberians’ groups in the United States are working with progressive groups and cheap-labor business groups to extend their stay.

Trump’s decision to end the Liberian DED status comes after he and his deputies have announced they are gradually ending TPS status for roughly 260,000 people from El Salvador, 58,000 Haitians, 5,000 Nicaraguans, 1000 Sudanese. Also, 86,000 people from Honduras will learn in May whether their multi-year TPS status will be extended.

The departure of the various TPS migrants will open up many jobs for lower-skilled Americans, so helping raise wages after decades of little or no growth.</s>U.S. Coast Guard fast boats carrying suspects detained in prior drug interdiction operations are transferred from the USCG cutter Mohawk, seen in the background, to the USCG cutter Stratton, in the eastern Pacific. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills, File)

A U.S. Coast Guard law enforcement team from the USCG cutter Stratton boards a fishing boat carrying close to 700 kilos of pure cocaine, in the Pacific hundreds of miles south of the Guatemala-El Salvador border. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills, File)

In this March 2, 2017 photo, an unidentified U.S. Coast Guardsman communicates with the pilot of a helicopter during take-off and landing exercises on the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Stratton in the eastern Pacific Ocean. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills, File)

SAN DIEGO (AP) — The U.S. and Mexican governments are sparring over immigration and trade, but the two countries are joining forces on the high seas like never before to go after drug smugglers.

The United States, Mexico and Colombia will target drug smugglers off South America's Pacific coast in an operation that is scheduled to begin Sunday and last for the foreseeable future, Coast Guard officials told The Associated Press.

U.S. Coast Guard Adm. Paul F. Zukunft teased the idea during a recent defense conference in San Diego, saying the United States "can't do it alone."

"It's no secret we are besieged with the flow of drugs from Latin America to the United States," he said.

U.S. and Mexican forces have routinely worked together at sea, but the latest effort "marks a significant step in terms of information sharing, collaboration and cooperation between the United States, Mexico and other partner nations," according to the Coast Guard.

The Americans and Mexicans will exchange intelligence more freely than in the past, which could mean sharing information on well-traveled routes for drug smugglers or preferred paths for specific smuggling organizations, Coast Guard spokeswoman Alana Miller said.

They will also board the other country's vessels to view operations and gain expertise, Miller said. In 2015, three members of the Mexican navy boarded a Coast Guard vessel during a port call in Huatulco, Mexico, but this operation calls for more frequent exchanges, and they will be at sea.

The operation will last "for the foreseeable future as long as it's working for everyone," Miller said. "It's sort of open-ended."

Traffickers over the years have increasingly turned to the sea to move their illegal goods, traversing an area off South America that is so big, the continental United States could be dropped inside. Smugglers routinely move cocaine out of countries like Colombia to Central America and Mexico via fishing boats, skiffs, commercial cargo ships — even homemade submarines.

The operation comes after five years of record seizures by the Coast Guard. But U.S. officials say because of limited resources, the U.S. military's smallest service still catches only about 25 percent of illegal shipments in the Pacific.

Even so, the Coast Guard annually seizes three times the amount of cocaine confiscated at the U.S.-Mexico border. Yet ocean smuggling has not grabbed lawmakers' attention like the flow of drugs across the nearly 2,000-mile-long (3,200-kilometer-long) land border, where the Trump administration wants to spend billions to build a continuous wall.

As much as 20 percent of the cocaine moving through South America ends up in the United States, and most of it lands first in Mexico from seafaring smugglers. The hope is boats will be stopped before their shipments are loaded onto Mexican trucks that fan out on various routes bound for the U.S. border, authorities said. Large boats can cart 20 tons (18 metric tons) of cocaine or more.

Mexico has historically been among the Latin American countries that are most reluctant to join operations with the U.S., which can be traced back to the Mexican-American War that was fought 170 years ago. The United States cannot open military bases in Mexico, and U.S. officials, for instance, cannot venture into Mexican waters without prior permission, even if they are chasing drug vessels.

The Coast Guard now stops its pursuit and alerts Mexican authorities if suspicious boats cross into their territorial waters.

It's unclear whether this new cooperation will affect those restrictions.

Treaties with nations such as Colombia have allowed U.S. authorities more latitude, such as permitting Coast Guard officers to board Colombian-flagged ships. U.S. officials have touted Colombia's joint anti-drug efforts as a model for the region.

The U.S. and Mexican military relationship has strengthened since the two nations signed the 2008 Merida Initiative to work together in the drug war. There have been more cross-border trainings, especially with the Mexican Navy, which is considered less corrupt than the Mexican Army and has raised its profile with the captures and killings of drug bosses.

The combined operation was planned in a series of meetings over the past year. The maritime services signed letters of intent to work together to fight organized crime while respecting each country's sovereignty and territorial waters.

David Shirk, associate professor of political science at the University of San Diego, said the operation falls in line with Trump's vow to go after the "bad hombres," while President Enrique Pena Nieto has recognized organized crime is so severe that Mexico needs help.

"With more walled-off sections of the border, we've seen drug trafficking organizations literally go underground or offshore," he said.

Last year, the Coast Guard seized more than 455,000 pounds (206,000 kilograms) of cocaine worth more than $6 billion and brought more than 600 suspected traffickers back to the United States for prosecution. The Coast Guard has been criticized for holding suspects on ships where they cannot easily access lawyers. Shirk said joint operations could lead "to serious violations of suspects' rights at sea and possible human rights violations in the process."

Coast Guard officials say they respect suspects' rights. Where suspects will be sent with the three countries participating in the operation will be decided on a case-by-case basis.

U.S. military officials have been reluctant to openly discuss details of the cooperation with their Mexican counterparts, sensitive to the Mexican public's historical view and recent barbs between the two presidents.

Jorge Chabat, a political scientist at the Center for Economic Research and Teaching in Mexico City, said he doubts the combined operation will get much negative reaction from a Mexican public tired of drug violence.

"The more insecurity we have, the less nationalism we have in Mexico," he said.

Ultimately, he doubts the joint operation will make much difference.

"This is something they have to do to maintain drug trafficking at the same level, and not allow it to grow," he said. "That's the most you can do. You can't just surrender."

Associated Press writer Elliot Spagat in San Diego contributed to this report.</s>SAN DIEGO (AP) - The U.S. and Mexican governments are sparring over immigration and trade, but the two countries are joining forces on the high seas like never before to go after drug smugglers.

A combined maritime operation that also involves Colombia is scheduled to start Sunday and marks an unparalleled level of cooperation between Mexico and the United States.

U.S. Coast Guard Adm. Paul F. Zukunft told The Associated Press the operation will start off South America's coast, where the flow of drugs is heaviest.

FILE - In this March 2, 2017 photo, an unidentified U.S. Coast Guardsman communicates with the pilot of a helicopter during take-off and landing exercises on the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Stratton in the eastern Pacific Ocean. The U.S. Coast Guard is teaming up with the Mexican and Colombian navies off South America's Pacific coast to go after seafaring smugglers, opening a new front in the drug war. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills, File)

Experts say the two countries are working closer on security issues despite political tensions over President Donald Trump's stance on immigration and other cross-border issues.

The operation comes as the Coast Guard makes record seizures. But officials say the tiny service still only catches about 25 percent of the illicit shipments.

FILE - In this Feb. 23, 2017 file photo, a U.S. Coast Guard law enforcement team from the USCG cutter Stratton boards a small fishing boat that was stopped carrying close to 700 kilos of pure cocaine, in the Pacific Ocean hundreds of miles south of the Guatemala-El Salvador border. The U.S. Coast Guard is teaming up with the Mexican and Colombian navies off South America's Pacific coast to go after seafaring smugglers, opening a new front in the drug war. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills, File)

FILE - In this Feb. 26, 2017 file photo, two U.S. Coast Guard fast boats carrying suspects detained in prior drug interdiction operations are transferred from the USCG cutter Mohawk, seen in the background, to the USCG cutter Stratton, in the eastern Pacific Ocean. The U.S. Coast Guard is teaming up with the Mexican and Colombian navies off South America's Pacific coast to go after seafaring smugglers, opening a new front in the drug war. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills, File)
Mexican federal police and migration agents find 136 migrants in a locked truck abandoned near a freeway in Veracruz. Without water or food, the people from the countries of Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua, including dozens of minors, were en route to the United States.