New Fortress Consulate (Consulates?) On the Mexican Border

It's all just across that borderline

My good friends at the Office of Overseas Buildings Operations announced yesterday that they have awarded a design / build contract for a new borderline diplomatic facility - I mean, a diplomatic facility to be built on the U.S.-Mexican border - in fact, right smack on the border at U.S. Consulate General Nuevo Laredo:

The Department of State’s Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO) announces the design/build construction award for a new U.S. Consulate General in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico to B.L. Harbert, International of Birmingham, Alabama.

The project will provide a new 5.6-acre Consulate campus just south of downtown Nuevo Laredo, on Paseo Colon. The campus will include a Consulate, a U.S. Marine Security Guard residence, a support annex, and facilities for the Consulate community. Ground breaking for the project is expected in early 2015, and completion of the project is anticipated in fiscal year 2017.

The Department sent out a second press release yesterday about yet another contract award, this one for a new Consulate General in Matamoros. However, by today that notice had disappeared from the page of January 2015 press releases. Presumably it was sent prematurely and then recalled (?). Anyway, I do hope the Department was not confused about which Mexican border post is which.

I always find the image of that borderline so haunting. The only song that does it justice is this one, performed here in a very nice Tejano style.



There are a few more verses to the song, but the last bits are rarely performed. The full lyrics are here, including the lines in Spanish ("en la triste oscuridad ...") and this one: "but hope remains when pride is gone, and it keeps you moving on ..." Written by a gringo, by the way.

That song is just plain one of the most moving ones I've ever heard.