December 17, 2007

 

Mexico Proposes an Intergovernmental Border Commission

 

By Barnard R. Thompson

 

The Mexican Senate’s Northern Border Affairs Committee, on December 11, formalized a proposal for the creation of an “Inter-secretarial and Intergovernmental Commission for the Attention, Development and Strengthening of the Northern Border.”  The blueprint, drafted by committee chairman Senator Luís Alberto Villarreal García (National Action Party, Guanajuato) and now before the Senate as a whole, had the prior approval of the two other committee members, senators Lázara Nelly González Aguilar (PAN, Tamaulipas) and Jesús María Ramón Valdés (Institutional Revolutionary Party, Coahuila).

 

The measure, pending Senate approval, calls on the President of Mexico to create “a permanent … Commission … that has as its objective the coordination, through realization processes, of the policies, programs and actions of government undertaken to gain integral and sustainable development of the country’s northern border region.”

 

Actually, as explained in the preamble of the proposal, multi-agency northern border area commissions have existed in the past, the last being in place from 2001 to 2004.  Plus those of the 1970s and 80s still serve as precedents, not to mention binational entities such as the Good Neighbor Commission of Texas, the Arizona-Mexico (Sonora) Commission, and the now moribund Commission of the Californias.

 

Mexico’s northern border region is a favored area in order to build a better relationship with the United States of America, “that without doubt is our main partner from the economic point of view,” the draft states.  And it notes that good relations with the United States are necessary in order for the border to be seen as orderly and safe, while adding that currently this is not the case.  “Today there is tension in the [relationship], which requires the attention of all national and local players.”

 

Writing about the importance of northern Mexico, Senator Villarreal points out the value of border area activities such as bilateral commerce, tourism, the maquiladora industry and the manufacturing of products for exportation.  As well, he mentioned benefits like local labor markets and forces, and social and cultural interchange.

 

More than 13 million people live in Mexico’s six border states, in a total of 39 municipalities.  With respect to the U.S.-Mexico border, according to the document there are more than 400 million crossings each year.

 

Villarreal continued: “Furthermore, throughout this year the Northern Border Affairs Committee has been meeting with mayors and businesspersons of different northern border cities, and they have outlined a series of issues that have an effect on said region, which are considered in the following [bullet] points: border crossings and infrastructure; public security; the maquiladora industry, manufacturing that [represents] more and better jobs; tourism; natural resources and the environment; trade; health; municipal federalism; [and] others.”

 

The plan and call is for Mexican President Felipe Calderón “to create an Inter-secretarial and Intergovernmental Commission for the Attention, Development and Strengthening of the Northern Border, with the goal of forming a working group that would be in charge of the organization, establishment, coordination and facilitation of Mexico’s northern border program and its plans of action, with the objective of assuring the integral and orderly development of the country’s northern border region through the formation of concurrent programs of society and the three orders of government.”

 

According to the Senate draft, the commission would be composed of undersecretaries from the Mexican Secretariats of Social Development, Finance and Public Credit, Economy, Health, Education, Communications and Transportation; national representatives of the Integral Development of the Family agency (DIF); as well as members of the Border Mayors’ Association; Border Governors Conference; and Border Legislative Conference.  Furthermore, suitable institutions that take part in activities that help to improve the region’s public services will have consulting roles.

 

The proposal states that the northern border region is one of the most complex in all Mexico, where differing economic and social processes intermingle, and that its role with the United States is fundamental to bilateral relations.  As such, the area offers vast opportunities for national development, but too there are serious challenges in understanding.

 

With respect to impacts on northern Mexico, during the past ten years the United States has toughened control over its border with Mexico considerably, the documents states.  This, in turn, has caused many migrant workers to remain in Mexican border towns, triggering tremendous social pressures – along with escalating deficiencies due to the inability of local governments to provide the infrastructure necessary for people seeking a dignified way of life.

 

The Mexican Congress went on winter recess December 13, and it will reconvene February 1.  Subsequently Senate action on this matter should take place.

 

——————————

Barnard Thompson, editor of MexiData.info, has spent 50 years in Mexico and Latin America, providing multinational clients with actionable intelligence; country and political risk reporting and analysis; and business, lobbying, and problem resolution services.  He can be reached via e-mail at mexidata@ix.netcom.com.