More restrictions placed on travel to Mexico

[unhappycamper]

More restrictions placed on travel to Mexico
By Gidget Fuentes - Staff writer
Posted : Sunday Jan 25, 2009 11:48:08 EST

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. — The top commander here has ordered that all Marines, including officers and senior enlisted Marines, must have their unit’s permission before traveling to Mexico.

Lt. Gen. Samuel Helland, I Marine Expeditionary Force commander, issued the tighter rules only a few weeks after he and other senior Marine Corps and Navy regional commanders clamped down on travel south of the border, where escalating violence between warring drug cartels is blamed for the deaths of nearly 6,000 people last year.

Recent media reports have suggested that Tijuana specifically is off limits, but a closer look at Helland’s updated Mexico travel policy shows that’s not exactly right.

“All I MEF personnel traveling to Mexico on leave, liberty or official business possess a liberty chit signed by the first O-5 or higher in the traveler’s chain of command,” Helland’s policy states. I MEF includes West Coast-based infantry, aviation and logistics units.

The previous policy, adopted Dec. 24, required liberty chits only for staff sergeants and below.


Rest of article at: http://marinecorpstimes.com/news/2009/01/marine_newmexicorules_012509w/%2e