Did cartel threats really preempt protest for Marine jailed in Mexico?

It was the blockade that couldn’t drive straight.

On Saturday, unknown numbers of Americans angry about the Mexican incarceration of former Marine Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi, illegal immigration and a bunch of other stuff, were supposed to drive to ports of entry between Mexico and the United States, turn off their engines and form a blockade.

Stasyi Barth, the 41-year-old Lake Elsinore housewife who dreamed up the protest pictured patriots stepping from their cars, waving American flags and forcing officials on both sides of the border to act. Nevermind the Mexican judicial system! Nevermind the intense debate about illegal immigration! Nevermind the billions already spent securing the border!

This would show Washington, for once and for all that ... well, that some people are so darn mad they are willing to engage in acts of civil disobedience to make their point.

On her Facebook page, Shut Down All Ports, Barth demanded Tahmooressi’s immediate release, and the permanent sealing of the U.S./Mexico border “by means of a military grade fence with razor wire (or similar equivalent” and by adding any and all additional Border Patrol Agents and militarized National Guard members needed to further deter any unauthorized entry.”

Yeah, it was kind of a silly plan. For starters, Tahmooressi is on trial in Mexico, and it’s inconceivable that the judge in the case would order his release mid-proceeding because some Americans decided to block traffic.

The protest began to fall apart for real on Thursday.

Barth had been deeply disappointed when Tahmooressi’s mother, Jill, disavowed the action, first on Facebook, where she said the planned demonstration was “not legal, not effective and needlessly inconveniences and endangers others,” and then in a private phone call. Barth had understood, from previous contact with Jill Tahmooressi that the former Marine’s mother was on board.

But Barth rallied: “We still have a country to defend and protect. This protest will go on!” she emailed supporters. Friday, she posted meeting places for each of 17 ports of entry that were to be blocked. The idea was to meet up in parking lots, and caravan to the border.

But Saturday at 2 a.m., in an urgent message, Barth called the whole thing off.

There had been, she said, “an unsubstantiated threat of mass violence to attendees, along with very suspicious activity on the Facebook site … Your lives, and the lives of our law enforcement, are more important than any protest.”

When I spoke to Barth at 6:50 a.m. Saturday, she told me she’d been up all night, and that her partner in the event, a militia goofball named Rob Chupp, who has been “patrolling” the border in Texas, had received threats from “the cartel.” (Chupp is part of the “Patriots” militia group that was in the news recently when one of its members, who was holding a rifle, was shot at by a border patrol officer who mistook him for an armed migrant here illegally.)

I had to suppress a chuckle.

The cartel? I don’t personally know any Mexican drug lords, but I find it hard to believe that anyone engaged in high-stakes smuggling would give a fig about some bumbling American political protesters. Like, wouldn’t a drug lord just wait till Sunday or Monday to resume smuggling operations?

As one commenter on Barth’s Facebook page put it: “I can’t believe you chickened out. You got scared by the drug cartels? This operation was in the US, not in Mexico! Using your logic, the Border Patrol and militias on the border should all pack up and go home!”

I drove to the border Saturday morning before the appointed 8 a.m. protest time. I was curious whether anyone would show up.

The only ones who did, as far as I could tell, were eight cars of California Highway Patrol officers, who had parked along the freeway exit closest to the border, positioned to break up the jam, which never materialized. The officers were standing around their cars, looking relaxed and chatting.

In Arizona, the Nogales International newspaper reported that cops were out in force at the DeConcini Port of Entry in Nogales, but protesters were nowhere to be seen.

I drove into Mexico at 8:02 a.m., turned around, and drove right back out. My cross-border adventure took about 15 minutes. Traffic flowed freely.

Because I was curious, I also retraced the steps of Tahmooressi on the night he was arrested after crossing into Mexico with three loaded guns.

Tahmooressi, 25, has always claimed he accidentally crossed the border and that he never meant to bring his weapons into that country, which has strict antigun laws. In his attorney’s view, this is perhaps his strongest line of defense.

Tahmooressi’s error is easy to spot. On the day he was arrested, Tahmooressi had parked his truck near the border on the U.S. side, and walked or taken a cab into Mexico earlier in the day. In Tijuana, he checked into Hotel Nelson, near the famous Tijuana arch, but checked out a few hours later because the hotel was dingy. “And I didn’t really like what I seen in Tijuana that much anyway with all the authorities and things,” he told Fox News’ Greta Van Sustern on May 30, two months after his arrest. “I didn’t feel very safe or comfortable there.”

So he crossed back into the U.S., got back to his truck around 10 p.m., and drove out of the parking lot onto a street called Camino de la Plaza, just north of the border. He turned left out of the lot, and when he came to a traffic signal, he was facing east, toward Interstate 5, just in front of him. San Diego was on his left, to the north; Mexico was on his right, to the south.

He made a left turn onto what he thought was the northbound Interstate 5 onramp. Unfortunately, that ramp then curved around to the right, and put him on Interstate 5 going south, directly into Mexico, with no exit possible.

It was dark, and who knows what kind of emotional shape he was in. He suffers from PTSD, he may have had a girlfriend on the other side of the border, the day had clearly not gone well for him.

But he missed two prominent road signs warning that his left turn would take him to “Mexico ONLY”—one on the right side of the road, and one hanging from the light signal right in front of him.

His avid supporters, outraged that he is on trial in the first place, like to characterize him as having been “forgotten” by the media. But since shortly after his arrest, Tahmooressi has been the subject of an avalanche of publicity, and appeals for his legal fund. His case is being closely monitored by the State Department, and he has been the subject of numerous letters to the Mexican government by American legislators. On Oct. 1, two Republican congressmen, California’s Ed Royce and Arizona’s Matt Salmon have scheduled a hearing on Tahmooressi in Washington. Tahmooressi’s mother and the talk show host Montel Williams, a former Marine who has devoted his Twitter feed to spreading the word about Tahmooressi (and tamping down some of the sillier rhetoric, like calls for a jail break), are scheduled to testify.

Meanwhile, I wanted to press Barth a bit more about why she decided to cancel the protest. I think she made the right decision, but I had a hard time swallowing the cartel excuse.

She was not available to chat with me at 8:20 a.m. Saturday when I called her from the border to set up a time to meet. “I’ve just taken three Xanaxes,” she told me, sounding very tired and very down.

Six hours later, when I knocked on the door of her handsome Lake Elsinore home, she was still zonked out asleep. Her husband, Byron, invited me in for a few minutes.

“It’s amazing what you can do in your pajamas with a computer and social media,” he said.

I guess that’s one way of looking at it.

By Monday, Barth had taken down her Facebook page and was no longer answering my calls.

Twitter: @robinabcarian