MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- The paramilitary group Civilian Materiel Assistance ended its convention Sunday pledged to fighting communism instead of forming a civil patrol along the Mexican border to keep out illegal aliens and drugs.
Jim Kent, a CMA spokesman, said the group believes drug smuggling along the Rio Grande is a threat to the United States, but is not a matter for the CMA.
'CMA's sole mission, however, is to help the anti-communist freedom fighters around the world,' he said. 'No CMA chapter or affiliate will be authorized to participate in any border operation of any description whatsoever.'
Kent said the change of plans was irrelevant to objections by law enforcement agencies in Texas and Arizona to such a program.
'The U.S. government can't stop us as long as we do not break any laws,' Kent said.
He said the patrol issue became the main topic of the convention 'even though it didn't start out as that.' The concensus was that it was not a proper role for the CMA.
'People felt we did not belong down there,' Kent said.
Kent said the focus of the 3,000 member organization will be on aiding anti-communists in Central America and to educate Americans.
'The communists reap the profits of the drugs,' says Kent. 'Our thrust will turn to the education of the American people about the link between communists and drugs.'
The organization first drew attention in 1984 when Nicaraguan soldiers shot down a helicopter that had intruded from Honduras, killing the two CMA members aboard. A few weeks ago, CMA members detained 15 illegal aliensin a remote town on the Arizona-Mexico border until U.S. Border Patrol agents arrived.
Group leader Tom Posey said he supported a limited border patrol program for the CMA to cut off financial support for communism in Central America.
'Everybody very well knows the communists get their greenbacks from drugs. If we can stop the drugs, we can hurt them,' he said.
But most of the 300 delegates from around the nation rejected the border patrol plan in a convention vote Saturday.
'I wouldn't be here if I didn't think that (Arizona) was an isolated incident that may have been ill-advised and definitely did not reflect the policy of this organziation,' said Dr. Charles McHugh, a physician from Phillipsburg, N.J.
Posey took the defeat philosophically.
'What makes the organization beautiful is that we get together, discuss, sometimes debate and come out with an answer that everybody is satisfied with,' he said.
The convention, which opened Friday, concluded Sunday with seminars on the situation in Guatemala and Nicaragua and a memorial service for James Powell III, one of the two CMA members who died in the helicopter crash.
