Baja Tourism Leaders Worried After Spate of Bad News

A spate of unhappy news involving U.S. visitors to Baja California that has roiled passions along the international border has some Baja officials worried about the possible harm to their all-important tourism industry.

It was bad enough, tourism officials say, that Mexico’s federal government abruptly unveiled a fee of 150 pesos--about $16--that must be paid by visitors who stay more than three days or venture south of Ensenada. (Within Baja California, the fee was changed so it now applies only to visits longer than three days, regardless of the destination).

Then two automobile crashes involving Southern Californians prompted furious criticism that Mexican authorities kept family members from transporting the injured Americans to San Diego trauma centers until they paid high bail amounts.

The string of calamities has ensnarled even a force as formidable as the U.S. Marines. A Marine sergeant who inadvertently crossed into Mexico while on duty was jailed in Tijuana for two weeks on gun charges stemming from two disassembled weapons found in his truck. He was finally released Nov. 12 after members of San Diego’s congressional delegation appealed to President Clinton and Mexican Atty. Gen. Jorge Madrazo.

In Ensenada, meanwhile, some U.S. citizens are fighting in court to hold onto homes they have leased for years on disputed land.

And as if anyone needed more reason not to visit, there have been misunderstandings over a new Mexican requirement that drivers begin paying a deposit Dec. 1 when taking a U.S. car into the interior of Mexico. Baja California is exempt from this fee.

Even Baja’s staunchest promoters concede that the incidents--replete with questionable decisions, misunderstanding and finger-pointing--have amounted to a public relations nightmare.

“We are concerned,” said Ives Lelevier, executive director of Tijuana’s Convention and Visitors Bureau. “I can assure you it’s having a negative impact. I can’t tell you 5% or 10% or 15%. But I can assure you, it’s having a negative effect.”

Scattered reports of hotel cancellations are but one sign of trouble. The pair of crashes and the incarceration of Marine Sgt. Brian Johnston became incendiary fodder for U.S. talk-radio hosts and prompted off-the-cuff proposals for a boycott of Mexico by residents of the largest U.S. city on the Southwest border. Letters to the editor in the local newspaper have seethed with indignation. Officials at the Mexican Consulate in San Diego found themselves barraged by hateful telephone calls.

“It’s been one thing after another,” said one Mexican official. “The atmosphere is very negative.”

The San Diego County Board of Supervisors this week directed county officials to devise a 24-hour hotline and establish a fund, using public or private money, that could help injured American drivers pay Mexican bail in cases in which they have been detained on suspicion of having broken the law. Sponsors hope that would speed transfers to hospitals in the United States. And officials on both sides of the border predicted that there will be binational talks aimed at speeding evacuation of injured visitors.

“It’s a health issue for me--how do you save some lives?” said Supervisor Ron Roberts, who co-sponsored the measure.

Although the recent events were unrelated, their timing has drawn attention to issues, such as the availability of trauma care in Mexico, far removed from the usual focus of border politicians.

“These two [crash] incidents so close together have really put the spotlight on the whole issue of border relations,” Roberts said.

In both cases, relatives of injured Americans complained that their loved ones were denied U.S. medical care because Mexican authorities first required that bail be posted. Mexican authorities pointed out that bail is a standard requirement in crashes being investigated for possible criminal wrongdoing and serves to guarantee payment of damages to other people involved.

In August, the family of a San Diego County man apparently at fault in a two-car collision on the toll road between Rosarito and Ensenada said his transfer to a U.S. hospital was delayed for a crucial 18 hours until $7,000 in bail and transport fees were paid. The motorist, Donald Kraft, who had not purchased Mexican insurance, suffered a broken neck and eventually died more than a week after his transfer to San Diego.

U.S. officials said Mexican authorities erred in not releasing Kraft to get emergency medical care. “That was simply outrageous,” said U.S. Ambassador Jeffrey Davidow in Mexico City.

On Nov. 6, an Orange County man died and two friends were injured in a single-vehicle crash near Rosarito. Each of the injured men was required to post $11,000 bond. One paid the bail before he was released to a U.S. hospital; the other was held 48 hours and then let go. Mexican police, who suspected that the crash was alcohol-related, were unable to determine who was driving and whether criminal charges were warranted.

The survivors said all three men had been drinking. They said the vehicle was driven by the deceased, Keith Takabayashi, 31, of Newport Beach. Mexican authorities later found that he had been under the influence of alcohol, although below the legal limit for driving in the United States.

North of the border, the two cases prompted fury among family members and consternation among officials who viewed the delays in medical care as an affront to neighborly relations. Mexican officials blamed what they viewed as sensational, and sometimes inaccurate, media coverage. Others saw a lack of appreciation among American day-trippers that traveling in Mexico means following Mexican laws.

“Someone had to respond for the damage. When they paid the bond, they left. In 24 hours, they were in San Diego,” said Juan Rebolledo, Mexico’s assistant foreign minister in charge of U.S.-Mexican relations. “If the same thing happens to me in the U.S., and I want to return to Mexico, they would say, ‘Yes, but who will pay the damage?’ . . . We have laws too that must be followed.”

Davidow agreed, saying, “If you’re in an accident in Oklahoma, they’re not going to let you leave until they find out who’s responsible.”

A separate back-and-forth played out over the jailed Marine, whose blunder put him in violation of Mexico’s strict laws restricting firearms. Freeway signs leading to Mexico warn against taking guns or ammunition. Johnston, who was assigned to pick up two Marines at the San Ysidro border crossing, said he never intended to enter Mexico but wound up driving in the wrong lane.

The region is no stranger to hot-button concerns, such as immigration and human rights. One border expert said the recent cases were aggravated by a leadership “vacuum” left by the departure of key border officials in San Diego, including former U.S. Atty. Alan Bersin and Mexico’s Consul General Luis Herrera-Lasso.

“The team that helps keep incidents under control--the binational team--just isn’t there. Right now there’s no one who can say, ‘I’ve got this under control,’ ” said Charles Nathanson, who heads the nonprofit San Diego Dialogue.

The recent troubles appear to have injected tourists with a healthful dose of caution.

Hugh Kramer, who runs the 15,000-member Discover Baja Travel Club, said more people are buying Mexican car insurance, plus extra coverage for legal costs, such as bail, that typically are not included.

Baja officials say it’s too early to measure the impact of the bad publicity on tourism. A downturn would mar what otherwise has been a promising year. The state, which receives $1.2 billion annually from foreign visitors, has seen tourist revenue running ahead of last year’s figures. Traffic on the Ensenada toll road was up 250,000 cars by October and hotel stays statewide also were on the rise. Local officials are lobbying to get rid of the federal tourism fee in Baja California altogether.

Juan Tintos Funcke, tourism secretary for Baja California, found reason for optimism in another figure: Foreigners made 28.5 million crossings into Baja last year.

“That’s a staggering amount when you compare it to the number of incidents such as these ones,” he said. “It’s not a common situation.”

Ellingwood reported from San Diego and Sheridan from Mexico City.