December 24, 2007
Holiday
Welcomes and Woes Greet Mexican Migrants
Frontera
NorteSur
In the United States, the mass media
frequently reports on holiday flight delays and other nightmares facing millions of air travelers. In northern Mexico, where
automobiles and buses are preferred means of transportation, travelers, including many US residents of Mexican origin, also
confront numerous troubles in their annual migrations to spend the holidays with loved ones.
In a gesture to reassure
the season's travelers, Mexican President Felipe Calderon personally welcomed drivers passing through the Tijuana Port of
Entry on December 17. Members of Calderon's National Action Party planned to fan out December 18, the International Day of
the Migrant, to border crossings in Tijuana, Tecate and Mexicali with pamphlets in hand containing maps and other
useful information for visitors traveling south of the border.
Mexican federal and local legislators also got into
the act, organizing inspections of border crossings from Tijuana to Matamoros as well as visits to airports in Mexico
City, Guadalajara and Monterrey. The high-profile, politically-powered welcomes were organized in conjunction with the
federal government's annual Paisano Program, a multi-agency effort aimed at assisting the large number of holiday travelers
visiting Mexico. Launched in November, this year's program runs until next month.
"We aspire to have zero complaints,
zero denunciations this year," said Institutional Revolutionary Party Congressman Edmundo Ramirez Martinez, who serves as
the secretary for the border and migrant affairs committee of the Mexican Chamber of Deputies. "Nonetheless, the full weight
of the law will fall on public servants who are detected committing crimes or acts of corruption or extortion against our
countrymen."
Despite all the official attention focused on aiding returning migrants, a variety of problems including
unsafe transportation, corrupt government officials and even highwaymen still manage to ruin the holiday season for some.
In Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, workers at the city's main bus station recently denounced to El
Diario newspaper that holiday travelers, especially people coming from the US, were being shaken down for minimum amounts
of $100 by federal customs personnel and tax inspectors. Advised of the reports, the chief of Mexican customs in Ciudad Juarez,
Jose Marquez Padilla, said his agency would not stand for abuses by its agents.
"We aren't going to tolerate the attitude
of any person that could result in damages to the image of the Paisano Program," Marquez vowed.
In December, Ciudad
Juarez's main bus station is a prime plucking ground for corrupt agents. Ricardo Peralta Gonzalez, the bus station manager,
estimated that 100,000 people depart the bus station for the Mexican interior during the peak travel days. Travel demand is
so intense, Peralta added, that dozens of extra bus runs are scheduled.
A calamity of a different sort befell
bus passengers who were traveling from Ciudad Juarez to Torreon, Coahuila last week. A so-called pirate bus operated by Gamez
Tours of Ciudad Juarez crashed on the inter-state highway in southern Chihuahua state on December 13. The early morning wreck
left 35 passengers injured, including six people who were initially reported in serious condition. The first reports
indicated that speed was a factor in the accident. Like other similar incidents, the bus driver fled the scene of the crash.
"Thank
God we made it out alive," said passenger Gerardo Iracheta. "I am going to Torreon for the burial of my brother, who was just
murdered. It seemed like they wanted to take me with him."
In Ciudad Juarez alone an estimated 25 pirate lines
operate on the margins of the law. Employing buses manufactured between 1970 and 1990, the companies offer cut-rate
fares in comparison with the more established companies like Omnibus de Mexico. Passengers on the fated Gamez bus, for example,
paid about $15 for the trip to Torreon, a fare much cheaper than Omnibus' price of about $45.
Despite the reportedly
unsound mechanical conditions of many pirate buses, many border residents find the low-expense rides a realistic economic
alternative. "I think people take these buses because it is much cheaper for them," said Vicente Sanchez, a customer
of a pirate bus line. "It's true that they are more unsafe, but when it is time for one to go it is time for one to go."
Pirate
buses are especially popular during vacation periods, when large numbers of Ciudad Juarez residents take to the roads. The
routes of the pirate lines – Coahuila, Zacatecas, Durango, Veracruz, and Chiapas – reflect the origins of
the in-country migrants who inhabit the border city of an estimated 1.4 million people. Rodolfo Rubio, the author of a book
on Ciudad Juarez's population, estimated that 46 to 48 percent of the city's population was born elsewhere.
Salvador
Parra Mora, general manager for Foatscrm, a transportation and tourism trade industry association, said upwards of 40,000
people utilize the long distance pirate buses in Ciudad Juarez this time of year.
While many residents escape Ciudad
Juarez for the holidays, others arrive to visit relatives or stop for rest and resupply on their way south. Holiday travel
is an economic boon for local hotels and other businesses that lose out in the cross-border, pre-holiday shopping spending
that drives the commercial economy of neighboring El Paso, Texas. A similar phenomenon is evident in other Mexico-US
border cities.
Estimates vary of the total number of "paisanos" who return to Mexico from the US during this season.
National Migration Institute Commissioner Cecilia Romero predicted more than 1.2 million people will cross the US-Mexico border
headed south this season. Of this number, about 100,000 will enter at Ciudad Juarez, Romero said. Hector Valles Alvelais,
Chihuahua state secretary for commercial and tourist development, said at least 350,000 migrants will touch Chihuahua's soil
for the holidays. According to Valles, many will visit the mountains, Cuauhtemoc and Delicias regions.
A story in
the Mexico City daily El Universal reported that 1.8 million people will enter
Mexico from the United States during the holiday season. The travelers are expected to bring with them an estimated $5 billion
in cash, gifts and other merchandise.
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Sources:
El Universal/Notimex, December 18, 2007. Univision, December 17, 2007. Frontera, December 17, 2007. Article by Manuel Villegas.
Frontenet.com, December 13 and 17, 2007. El Diario
de Juarez, November 18, 2007; December 12, 13, 14, 17, 18, 2007. Articles by Juan de Dios Olivas and editorial staff.
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Frontera
NorteSur (FNS)
Center for Latin American and Border Studies
New Mexico State University
Las Cruces, New Mexico
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(Reprinted with authorization from
Frontera NorteSur, a free, on-line, U.S.-Mexico border news source. FNS can be found at http://frontera.nmsu.edu/.)
Translation FNS
