Mexico is going to send its National Guard to their border with Guatemala. Mexico Ambassador to the U.S Martha Bárcena Coqui told CBS’ Face the Nation their own National Guard will deploy Monday to stop illegal immigration.

I want to explain that this deployment will take place now because until two weeks ago, we were still discussing the laws to implement the National Guard. So the deployment throughout the country has been- has already begun and it will increase next Monday. So we will see how the results of the deployment of the National Guard which by the way, is not similar to the National Guard of the US. It is not like the National Guard of the US it is a- it is a police force based on the models of the European military police like the Carabinieri, like the Gendarmerie, like the Guardia- Guardia Civil Española. So we have to understand that when people talk about deployment of troops, they are wrong. What we are deploying is a police force, and we are deploying it to put order in the borders.

Bárceni Coqui declined to release the number of military police headed to the Guatemalan border, although Reuters reported on Friday there could be 6000 officers headed to the area.

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador aka AMLO is hedging his bets massively on why they’re going. Via Economiahoy.mx with a little help from Google Translate.

The deployment of 6,000 elements of the National Guard on the southern border of Mexico is part of a security program and is not part of the negotiations with the United States on the subject of tariffs ; Its members will be able to support migratory tasks, said President Andrés Manuel López Obrador at a press conference.

In that sense, he rejected that said deployment announced yesterday by the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Marcelo Ebrard, forms part of the agreements with the United States in the framework of the negotiation with authorities of that country for the possible imposition of tariffs on Mexican products.

“It does not mean that we are not complying with the migratory laws of the country, we are acting,” said the federal president, who endorsed what was said by Ebrard Casaubon, “if we have a Guard to help accompany migrants in their return, without violation of human rights.”

It’s entirely possible AMLO is spinning at home to make sure the press (and people) aren’t seeing him as some sort of lapdog of President Donald Trump. He is a politician, after all, and focused on maintaining power.

It’s also possible AMLO is hedging because the National Guard is still being put together. It was formally approved by the Mexican legislature in February with retiring Brigadier General Luis Rodríguez Bucio named the first leader in April. Via Conciencia in Mexico (with Google Translate’s help).

The enormous encomienda that Luis Rodríguez Bucio has in the National Guard has an extra challenge: not only is commanding the new corporation, but building it from scratch, with the great challenge of guaranteeing peace and security in the country.

“I think you are trying something different, build a new organization, that more certainty, that is always present, perhaps our previous projects was to go with a large number of people, police or military, where there was an event that required presence by short weather. Now, what is intended is permanent, will be throughout the national territory.

In the middle of his appointment, came the debate whether the guard was military or civilian, to which Luis Rodríguez Bucio said that he must have discipline in any armed force, with a military vision, he does not imagine it in any other way.

The New York Times reported in February the National Guard is expected to consist of 18K Federal Police, 35K military police, and several thousand naval police. However, the military – which was the group principally attempting to keep the peace in Mexico – is going to stay part of the equation for at least five years. This means the “deployment” of the National Guard may not be as large as the politicians are claiming.

There should be a heavy amount of skepticism on whether this ‘framework’ will actually solve the things the politicians claim they’ll solve.