Tucson, Arizona Monday, 10 November 2003
By Michael Marizco
ARIZONA DAILY STAR NOGALES, Sonora - The Mexican government is taking its human
rights commission on the road along the Sonora-Arizona border to combat civil
rights abuses by its own federal agents who target migrants returning to Mexico
for Christmas.
The idea is to provide an outlet for Mexican nationals worried that their U.S.-bought
gifts will be confiscated by corrupt Mexican customs officials.
The commission already has offices throughout the country, but in its most sparsely
populated areas - such as between Sasabe and Sonoyta or Naco and Nogales - there
is no help for migrants, said Joaquín González Castro, director
for the commission's northern border area.
Using a delivery-type truck, human rights advocates will roam the border, dropping
in on towns from Agua Prieta to as far as Altar, 120 miles west of Nogales.
The mobile office will provide migrants a place to complain about abuses. It
will be staffed by advocates, mostly lawyers, who will also have food and water.
The commission plans to eventually bring eight mobile offices to both its northern
and southern borders, said Miguel Angel Paredes, the commission's spokesman
in Mexico City.
Right now, people who want to complain about the government must call a toll-free
number or report their complaint to Mexico City, where the commission is based.
The commission was created in 1990 in response to corruption within the federal
government in Mexico City. Two years ago, the agency moved south to combat violations
against illegal border crossers from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. In
July, the commission opened Castro's office in Nogales.
The commission operates independently of other Mexican government agencies
and has authority to penalize an agency whose employees are extorting or threatening
people in Mexico.
Shopping in Nogales, Ariz., Friday, Jose Prado Valenzuela, of Sinaloa, said
he was worried about the bribes - called mordidas - that he'll have to make
for the clothes and cigarettes he plans to take home.
"Sometimes they'll charge me 500 to 1,000 pesos - about $50 to $100 -saying
it's Chinese goods and it's not; it's all made here," he said. "I
know they don't care where it was made since I pay them, and they let me go
through.
"I'm not saying all of them do that. But it just takes one."