Mexican Customs Officers Are Replaced En Masse : Border: Sweeping shake-up and reform are designed to increase efficiency and stem corruption.

As holiday traffic into Mexico picks up steam, the Mexican government has replaced thousands of its customs officers in a sweeping measure to increase efficiency and stem corruption.

On Sunday, customs officers working in the San Diego-Tijuana border area were placed on paid leave and replaced with a group of young, specially trained new officers of the Mexican customs police, or Policia Fiscal, Mexican officials said. The shake-up affecting about 160 officers in Tijuana--one of the busiest border crossings in the world--was part of a nationwide reorganization of Mexico’s customs service, said Jorge Rojo Deschamps, customs administrator in Tijuana.

The measure comes just in time to help thousands of Mexican immigrants living in Southern California who visit their homeland for Christmas each year, according to Mexican government spokesmen and local immigrant advocates. Some immigrants have complained that, as they cross the border southward bearing gifts and other goods, customs and other Mexican officials shake them down for bribes or confiscate their belongings.

“It is something you hear a lot of,” said Linda Mitchell of the Los Angeles-based Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights. “Anything that protects people in Mexico is a step in the right direction.”

All of the about 3,500 customs officers who dealt with the public at border stations, airports and other points of entry will be transferred, offered early retirement or retrained, Rojo said. Some officers may also be dismissed pending review, he said.

Mexican officials described the reforms as part of a continuing effort by the administration of President Carlos Salinas de Gortari to modernize and reform government. The possibility of a North American free-trade agreement has led to extensive discussion in the United States and Mexico as to how far the Salinas administration’s reforms will go.

“For us, this is part of the modernization process in which the Mexican government is changing to offer more efficient services,” said Miguel Escobar, spokesman for the Mexican consulate in San Diego.

Customs administrator Rojo said: “If this process achieves a new mentality which reduces the aspect of corruption, that’s fine. But it is not focused only on the question of corruption. . . . We have trained new personnel who are younger, enthusiastic and better trained to provide better service.”

The average age of the new officers is 25; they are required to have a minimum of a high school education and undergo an intense selection process and training course of four to six months, Rojo said. Previously, officers received most of their training on the job, he said.

The change of image also includes a switch from green to blue uniforms, which will make the officers easier to identify as customs police for those crossing the border, Rojo said. Officers who deal with the public will be unarmed, though some supervisors will carry guns, said Rojo, who said the customs service in past months has been reducing the number of officers who are armed.

U.S. immigration and customs personnel on the border learned unofficially of the shake-up shortly before it occurred over the weekend, according to U.S. officials.

“Usual customs officers who used to be seen on the line are not there any more,” said INS spokesmen Rudy Murillo. “What we are seeing there now are unfamiliar young faces. It’s a sweeping measure.”

A high-ranking Mexican treasury official told U.S. customs administrators about the changes at a Long Beach trade fair Tuesday, according to Gurdit Dhillon, assistant district director of U.S. Customs in San Diego, whose sector encompasses the California-Mexico border.

“We were assured that the change in staffing would not affect the flow of merchandise in or out,” Dhillon said. “We did a survey of our five ports of entry, and we have not seen any change.”

The total impact on both border traffic and corruption will not be clear until the holiday season ends, said Juan Jose Gutierrez, director of One-Stop Immigration, a Southern California immigrant rights group.

But he and other advocates said they feel this week’s events are significant, and they predicted that entry to Mexico will go faster because of reduced corruption and better-trained personnel.

“I don’t think the problems have been solved altogether, but I am optimistic,” Gutierrez said. “Personally, the way I see it is this is another signal that the Salinas administration is moving forward to improve what they have been doing as far as improving services for returning Mexicans.”

In 1989, the Mexican government created the “Paisano” program to combat official extortion and abuse of returning migrants through education about rights and increasing vigilance against corruption. That program continues, Miguel said. Rojo said the customs police shake-up accompanies the introduction of computerized systems at border crossings that will speed the flow of American tourists and returning Mexican nationals.