Mexico asks Senate to let 28 Navy SEALs train its navy
President Sheinbaum wants U.S. special forces in the country from Oct. 29. The Senate's Navy Committee has the request.
President Claudia Sheinbaum has asked Mexico's Senate to authorize 28 members of SEAL Team 4, the U.S. Navy's special operations force, to enter the country and train Mexican troops. The request reached the chamber and went to its Navy Committee on Monday, the Senate said in a statement.
The stay would begin Oct. 29 and end April 15, 2027, nearly six months later. The Americans would train 87 Mexican sailors, some from the Navy's special operations unit and others from its naval intelligence unit, in a program called "Evento No. SOF 19."
Classes would take place at two sites. One is the Navy's advanced training center in Donato Guerra, in the State of Mexico. The other is the Puerto Cortés naval sector on Isla Margarita, in Baja California Sur.
The syllabus covers tactical medicine, urban patrols, explosives detection, boarding vessels, sniper techniques and maritime interdiction, along with close-quarters combat indoors.
The SEALs would fly in on a U.S. Air Force C-130 carrying their tactical gear, ammunition and weapons, and land at the Naval Air Base in La Paz. Mexican Navy personnel would meet them there and take them to the training sites. The statement does not say which weapons or how many.
Under Article 76, Section III, of the Mexican Constitution, the Senate authorizes the passage of foreign troops through national territory. That is why the request lands in the chamber.
The statement does not carry any position from the parties. It gives no date for a committee ruling or a floor vote, although the SEALs would arrive Thursday, two days after it went out.
