Mexico Blames Border Rioting on Smugglers Stymied by Rules

Mexican officials blame a weekend riot that caused $20 million in damage to a Mexican customs office across the border from Laredo, Tex., on smugglers upset by more effective enforcement of customs rules.

The damage caused by the rioting shut two highway bridges at the border crossing--through which 38% of Mexico’s total foreign trade passes--for several hours Sunday and early Monday morning. Cargo was moving normally again by 8:30 a.m. Monday, and no one was seriously injured.

The riot occurred during a Sunday demonstration by 6,000 people at the international bridge. They were protesting customs rules requiring Mexicans living in the border region to pay import taxes on non-grocery purchases worth more than $50; people living farther south are allowed $300 worth of tax-free imports.

About 1,000 people broke off from the main protest group to storm the Mexican customs building. They entered the parking lot for trucks importing merchandise and began looting.

“It was just mass stealing,” said David Davies, who covers border issues for the Laredo Times. On Sunday night, after the riot ended, the Mexican border town of Nuevo Laredo was filled with children on brand-new bikes. “It was like Christmas had come early to Nuevo Laredo,” Davies said.

A Mexican official said a group headed straight for a third-floor automation area and demolished computers and software.

“They knew exactly what they wanted to destroy,” he said. The government and private customs agents had been testing a new, highly automated system for cargo that was expected to curtail smuggling, he said. That system depended on computers destroyed in the riot.

The government had backup files in the capital that were used to restore operations Monday.

The customs rules that provoked the protest have been in place for a decade; the objections were really about enforcement, officials and border residents agreed. Residents said that besides the crackdown, enforcement has also become more arbitrary, with customs officials allegedly seizing purchases for their own use.

Border residents have said they resent that they were subject to a different limit than other citizens. A new law published Monday will extend the $50 limit to all Mexicans returning to their country by land, reserving the $300 limit for airline passengers. Officials said the new law is not related to the riot.

Besides the new automated system for cargo, the government has installed a traffic-light system for pedestrians and automobiles that makes customs inspections random: Those who push a button and get a red light are inspected; those who get a green light are not.

The new system poses problems for small smugglers, who load up their trunks several times a day and cross the international bridge, relying on their contacts to ensure they are not inspected.