Mexico Vows to Curb Abuses Against Returning Citizens

With record numbers of Mexican immigrants expected to return to their homeland for holiday visits, three high-level officials from Mexico City have pledged a crackdown on extortion and other abuses long common among Mexican authorities posted at borders, airports and roads.

“We want our compatriots to know that they are welcome,” Fernando Solis Camara, Mexico’s immigration chief, told a news conference Thursday at the Mexican Consulate in Los Angeles. Joining him were the head of Mexico’s consular bureau and the director of the nation’s notoriously corrupt customs services.

For years, Mexican citizens living in the United States have complained of extortion, robbery, having their vehicles illegally confiscated and being forced to pay bribes to re-enter Mexico. One Eastside resident said he was shaken down for $10 upon arriving at the airport in Mexico City, where he was returning to attend his father’s funeral.

But this season will be different, said Solis, who predicted that a record 1 million Mexican nationals would go home for the holidays, attracted in part by the dollar’s increased buying power as the peso continues an almost yearlong plunge. Desperately in need of cash, the Mexican government is opening its arms to tourists, a fact that helps explain why the high-ranking trio made the trip to Los Angeles.

Authorities have set up toll-free telephone numbers for visitors to report cases of abuse within Mexico, the officials said. Booths that will provide information and take complaints have been installed at borders and airports. Citizens of all countries are encouraged to report abuses, the officials said.

“You’re at home,” says a glossy government-prepared pamphlet handed out to visitors. The flyer outlines basic information, such as what documents are needed to enter Mexico, what taxes are to be paid on gifts purchased abroad, what to do in case of an accident, and which foodstuffs, pets and other items may legally be brought into the country.

Asked how ingrained habits of corruption can be set aside, officials replied that about 5,000 inspectors, examiners, police and other Mexican officials have been subjected to intensive retraining. Authorities have vowed to fire and prosecute wrongdoers--a promise that many suspicious Mexican citizens say they have heard many times before.

“They promise and promise things will be better, but I don’t have much confidence,” said Marta Martinez of Pomona, who was at the consulate Thursday, making preparations for a trip home to Mexico next month. “It seems that they never respect people’s rights.”

In fact, Thursday’s announcement was tacit admission of the failure of the long-moribund paisano (roughly, countryman) program, which was launched with great fanfare six years ago, proclaiming identical goals: to reduce shakedowns and other abuses at ports of entry.

However, Thursday’s actions demonstrate how the bulging Mexican population in the United States--concentrated in Southern California--is increasingly seen, south of the border, as a group that must be reckoned with, politically and economically. Mexican natives in the United States send billions of dollars back home each year--a lifeline for a nation enduring economic free fall.

Mexico’s U.S. consulates--long criticized as inefficient, understaffed and arrogant--have expanded to 40, including 10 in California, and are taking an increasingly activist role.

Jose Angel Pescador Osuna, the consul general in Los Angeles, has denounced alleged police brutality against Latinos living in Southern California. Earlier this week, the consulate and the Mexican American Bar Assn. signed a contract to provide augmented legal services for Mexican citizens living here.

Meanwhile, lawmakers in Mexico City are contemplating constitutional amendments that would permit those living abroad to retain their rights as Mexican nationals while also taking on U.S. or another citizenship. Backers see dual citizenship as a protection against what many call a national backlash in the United States against immigrants, particularly Latinos.

Some are even pushing for an absentee ballot system that would allow millions of Mexican expatriates to vote in national elections, next scheduled for 2000. However, the nation’s established political leadership has long recoiled from such proposals, which would transform California and other U.S. areas into Mexican political battlegrounds.