Reopening Comes Late, Angry Merchants Say : Uncustomary Border Woes for Tecate

Nathalia Barbieri left work here Tuesday and drove 100 miles--to Otay Mesa and back--so she could stand on the Mexican side of the fence separating the United States and Mexico and report to her boss, who stood on the American side.

Normally, Barbieri could walk across the border to purchase the pottery that her employer wholesales to American buyers from his Tecate, Calif., business. But Tuesday she was force to make the trip via the Otay Mesa border crossing.s

Vut when U.S. officials closed nine crossings on the Mexican border from Saturday until mid-afternoon Tuesday, when Tecate and one other crossing were reopened, the desperate situation called for desperate measures. Barbiari was forced to drive all the way to Otay Mesa to rcross the border. So on Tuesday--with the border yet to reopen--Barbieri was at the fence talking to her boss, James Baker, about the next pottery shipment being prepared by Mexican artisans in Tecate, Mexico.

“You see this foot of space between us,” said Baker. “She had to drive 100 miles to get here. It seems a little ludicrous, doesn’t it? But how else are we going to do business?”

Actually, the matter appeared more absurd because less than 30 feet from where Baker and Barbieri were standing was a hole in the chain-link fence. The hole in the fence served as a detour to the barricades put up by the Americans at the port of entry. But Barbieri said she was too law-abiding to walk through what was obviously an illegal border crossing.

Earlier in the day, Vic Hindle, 67, a resident of the American side, had walked through the hole to take his daughter to her Mexican school. Hindle’s wife is a native of Tecate, Mexico, but the couple lives on the American side.

“I asked the Mexican aduana (customs) if I could take her to school and they said yes. So we walked through the hole, and I put her in a cab and returned through the hole. The Mexicans will let her walk back through the hole, but these guys (U.S. border officers) now won’t allow it. So, she’s staying with grandma tonight,” Hindle had said.

With the border closed, Tecate, an American desert town of 88 residents, had the appearance of a modern-day ghost town until 3 p.m. Tuesday, when U.S. officials unexpectedly opened the crossing for an hour. A relieved Barbieri quickly returned to the United States in her car, prompting Baker to declare, “Nathalia is back and we’re thankful.”

Jerome Hollander, a U.S. Customs spokesman in Los Angeles, said that Tecate and the crossing at Andrade, Calif., 10 miles west of Yuma, were opened between 3 and 4 p.m. to allow people stranded since the weekend to return to their own countries. Beginning today, both crossings will remain open between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. seven days a week until further notice. Before the closing, the crossing was open from 6 a.m. to midnight.

However, the remaining seven border crossings in New Mexico, Arizona and Texas will stay closed, said Fred Boyett, assistant regional commissioner for customs in Houston.

The nine crossings, all in remote areas, were ordered closed Saturday at sundown after U.S. officials were tipped that Mexican drug smugglers planned to kidnap an American border officer. U.S. Customs officials shut them down after deciding that adequate security measures could not be taken to safeguard the officers who staff them.

American merchants in Tecate are not shy in pointing out that the town’s 20 or so businesses depend almost wholly on the 75,000 residents of Tecate, Mexico, many of whom shop, bank and use the post office on the U.S. side.

Dennis Murphy, a customs spokesman in Washington, acknowledged Tuesday that pressure from the U.S. merchants influenced the decision to reopen the Tecate crossing. “There was a great deal of business traffic that was being severely hampered,” Murphy said.

Pete Carle, a Kellogg, Idaho, native who runs Tecate’s “little department store,” had closed his door at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, after making $2.75 in sales. Normally, sales average $600 a week, he said. Carle’s “store” is actually a roadside stand from which he sells a variety of items to buyers from 23 stores in Tecate, Mexico.

“I’ll never complain about a bad week again,” he chuckled.

Carle, who lives in Mexico with his Mexican wife and two children, was particularly relieved when the border was opened for an hour Tuesday. “I haven’t seen or talked to them since Saturday night. I’m anxious to see them,” he said.

Earlier in the day, potato chip vendor Lou Lueker pulled his panel truck up in front of William Lewis’ American Market, down the road from Carle’s stand. Lewis said 90% of his customers are from Mexico and that, with the border closed, he was not making many sales.

Lueker stopped at the entrance to the store and looked at Lewis, who merely shook his head. No explanation was necessary.

“Well, then I’ll just straighten up the rack. When they open it (the border) I’ll come back,” said Lueker.

Although thankful that U.S. officials decided to open the border, Lewis said that the damage has been done. His market lost about $4,000 daily over the three days the border was shut down, he said. In addition, Lewis said, he was forced to throw out most of the produce that spoiled in the bins and meats that could not be frozen.

On the Mexican side, customs officer Jose Antonio Dunstan shrugged his shoulders and smiled when a visitor talked through the border fence and asked him what he thought about the U.S. decision to close the border.

“I don’t know,” Dunstan said. “I’ve been a customs officer for 55 years. Nothing that the Americans do surprises me anymore. Washington and Mexico City will work it out. They always do.”