The governments of Mexico and France plan to exchange troops as part of a training program, officials said.
President Enrique Pena Nieto submitted a written request to the Senate for authorisation to send marines to France and have French troops enter Mexico in mid-April.
The plan is to send 27 marines to French Guiana from 13 April to 3 May for classes at the Jungle Training Center. France will send 26 members of the French Foreign Legion’s 3rd Infantry Regiment based in Kourou, French Guiana, for training in Mexico from 14 April to 6 May.
The French troops will take a course at the Mexican Marine Corps Specialized Training Center in San Luis Carpizo, a city in Campeche state, and will go to Veracruz at the completion of the programme. The Legionnaires particpate on 29 and 30 April in the ceremonies marking the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Camaron.
The French Foreign Legion earned its reputation as a legendary fighting force in the 30 April, 1863, battle in which a unit of fewer than 70 Legionnaires fought a numerically superior Mexican army during the French intervention in Mexico. Only two of the Legionnaires survived in the bloody battle.
President Enrique Pena Nieto submitted a written request to the Senate for authorisation to send marines to France and have French troops enter Mexico in mid-April.
The plan is to send 27 marines to French Guiana from 13 April to 3 May for classes at the Jungle Training Center. France will send 26 members of the French Foreign Legion’s 3rd Infantry Regiment based in Kourou, French Guiana, for training in Mexico from 14 April to 6 May.
The French troops will take a course at the Mexican Marine Corps Specialized Training Center in San Luis Carpizo, a city in Campeche state, and will go to Veracruz at the completion of the programme. The Legionnaires particpate on 29 and 30 April in the ceremonies marking the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Camaron.
The French Foreign Legion earned its reputation as a legendary fighting force in the 30 April, 1863, battle in which a unit of fewer than 70 Legionnaires fought a numerically superior Mexican army during the French intervention in Mexico. Only two of the Legionnaires survived in the bloody battle.