I’d always thought of piracy as a 17th Century anachronism. Then things got weird off the coast of Somalia a few years ago. Even so I considered it a distant condition borne of a failed state two oceans away. Recent reports of North American pirates have simply bewildered me. I never imagined it existed outside of Disney World, a la “Pirates of the Caribbean.”
I won’t spend too much time describing the Mexican river pirates. They’re currently stalking the Rio Grande / Río Bravo del Norte along the Falcon Reservoir border area. The press has reported it widely and I don’t need to go into great detail. Basically, rival gangs and increased law enforcement hampers smuggling by the Los Zetas drug cartel. As a result, they’ve discovered a new source of revenue. U.S. anglers sometimes stray across border waters in expensive boats loaded with sophisticated electronics. Easy pickings.
Falcon Reservoir
The Falcon Reservoir traces back to a cooperative effort between Mexico and the United States. A joint International Boundary and Water Commission manages it to benefit of both countries. Water is a scarce and valuable resource in this desert climate and a giant reservoir certainly contributes to the thirsty needs on both sides of the border. It provides drinking water, irrigation, hydroelectric power, flood control and recreational space.
The two nations plugged up the river in 1953 with the Falcon Dam, creating a large reservoir that stretches for miles. It has since become a magnet for boaters and fishermen. Texas Parks and Wildlife notes:
“Falcon has long been regarded as one of the best largemouth bass lakes in the state. To win a bass tournament at Falcon, it often takes a 5-6 pound average/fish for your stringer. Channel catfish provide additional opportunities, with an occasional blue or flathead catfish.”
The Border
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the Mexican-American War in 1848. This established the Rio Grande as a border through this portion, “from thence up the middle of that river, following the deepest channel, where it has more than one, to the point where it strikes the southern boundary of New Mexico.” Most of the time it’s pretty academic. It’s shallow and narrow. You’re either on one side of the river or on the other, as I discovered when I jumped the border a number of years ago. Deepest channel? Who cares. The rivulet is the border.
However, throw a lake on top of it and strange things happen. The international boundary continues to be the deepest channel as it existed in 1848. Unfortunately it is now submerged under more than 80,000 acres of flooded land. So the Commission placed concrete pillars in the lake at each border turn, one of which appears in the satellite image (enhanced greatly by the shadow it casts).
Still, the line doesn’t always stay near the middle of the lake either, thanks to underlying topography. It comes perilously close to the U.S. shoreline in some spots, and as close as 500 feet from the banks near Zapata, the major Texas town in the area. U.S. border control agents can only stand by helplessly if a fisherman strays across that invisible line and falls into the clutches of pirates.
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