President Fox Tours Border Checkpoints in Corruption Crackdown

Gonzalo Cortes and his wife, Virginia, have grown accustomed over the years to paying bribes to Mexican officials every Christmas holiday as they make their way from California to their home state of Michoacan.

This year, they got a happier reception. President Vicente Fox was overseeing the customs checkpoint personally Tuesday to make sure that the Cortes family and other Mexicans coming home from the United States encountered, as Fox put it, “zero corruption, zero dirty dealings.”

Just 11 days after he took office as Mexico’s first opposition president in generations, Fox led a team of Cabinet members and other top officials to inspect the border and to say some “Welcome homes” face to face. He toured the major crossing here between Arizona and Sonora state Tuesday and planned to make similar stops today in Chihuahua and Tamaulipas, states that border Texas.

His personal border crusade underscored the high priority Fox has assigned to reducing mistreatment and bureaucratic hassles for Mexicans who return home from the United States. An estimated 1.25 million Mexicans will come home this holiday season, many bringing gifts and cash for the communities they left behind.

Cortes, a 50-year-old permanent U.S. resident from Ventura County, said he and his wife had sailed through the border at midday Tuesday and had met only friendly, efficient service--with no hands held out.

“This is the first time I have seen them show this kind of concern for us,” Cortes said as Fox’s helicopter clattered to a dusty landing beside the customs checkpoint on the highway below the border between Nogales, Ariz., and Nogales, Mexico.

“In the past, they got us to pay bribes every year. Once they charged me a fortune at this very customs station,” he said. “I have paid up to hundreds of dollars in bribes to get my belongings through. Sometimes I have arrived in Michoacan with almost nothing.

“Let’s hope this is a permanent change,” Cortes added.

His wife said that enthusiasm for Fox’s changes has permeated their circle of friends and family in California. “People who haven’t come home for eight or 10 years because they were afraid of what would happen at the border are coming this year,” she said.

Several homeward-bound Mexicans said the treatment they have received at the border has already shown signs of improvement in the past two or three years, thanks to a program called Paisano (Countryman) designed to ease paperwork burdens and bottlenecks and eliminate mistreatment of returning Mexicans.

Gerardo Albino, head of the Paisano program, said that about 1,000 volunteers, many of them university students, now monitor border checkpoints over the holiday season to make sure migrants are treated well.

But other travelers said that even recently they have been shaken down for payoffs or delayed for hours in long lines, and not just at the border itself. The checkpoint Fox visited Tuesday is actually 13 miles south of the border at Nogales, and two more roadblocks conduct spot checks of travelers on the three-hour drive south to the Sonoran capital, Hermosillo.

Still more roadblocks confront returning migrants all the way down to the main emigrant states in the center of Mexico, providing numerous opportunities for official abuse. Some human rights groups have called on the government to reduce the number of sentry points in the interior.

Juan Hernandez, whom Fox named head of a special presidential office for migrant affairs, said Fox’s visit was a demonstration of what will be his presidential style.

“Vicente really believes in setting the example; he believes the example must come from the top,” Hernandez said as Fox toured the immigration and customs windows and grilled officials and travelers. “He knows that if he personally comes to say hello to these paisanos and sets the example that they need to be treated as VIPs--very important paisanos--it will filter down and many others who may not have been as kind as they should be will change their attitude.”

Hernandez said he will spend much of the next two weeks personally monitoring the 10 busiest border crossings, as will several Cabinet members, including Foreign Secretary Jorge Castaneda and Interior Secretary Santiago Creel.

Sonora Gov. Armando Lopez Nogales said that in December alone, 195,000 emigre Mexicans will reenter Mexico through the state’s border posts. Apart from difficulties they encounter returning home, Lopez noted, Mexicans crossing illegally into Arizona face severe dangers and exploitation by migrant-traffickers. He said Sonora also has facilitated the return of 1,160 minors caught by U.S. officials while trying to cross the border.

At a brief outdoor ceremony at the roadside customs complex, Fox acted more like a tough schoolmaster than a president as he called senior officials and low-level staff alike to the podium to explain what they do and what they will do better.

As police unit commanders, customs officials and tax agents spoke, Fox chided them and hugged them. When one tax official assured Fox that people are treated well, the president challenged him: “Zero corruption, zero dirty dealings, right?”

“Believe me, it will be that way,” the officer replied.

Arturo Rodriguez, in charge of the checkpoint’s car importation permit office, said he hopes to get people’s paperwork done in half an hour. Fox replied: “I charge you with this task: Get it under half an hour--today!”

Fox also greeted returning migrant Mariano Chavez, a ranch hand who works in Othello, Wash., and was heading to his family’s homestead in Las Barras, Nayarit.

After Fox finished chatting with him and moved on, the 30-year-old Chavez confided that he had paid bribes of $20 and $30 to get his goods through as recently as two years ago, and sometimes had to make three or four payments as he worked his way south of the border. He has been in the United States for a dozen years and now has U.S. citizenship.

“I believe that just by being here, Fox will ensure we are treated better, that we are treated with respect and valued and our rights are respected,” Chavez said.