Tucson, Arizona Thursday, 12 December 2002
By Tim Steller
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
Caborca, Sonora, will become part of Mexico's border zone under a declaration
issued this week by Mexican President Vicente Fox.
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That means Arizona travelers will be able to visit Caborca and the nearby town of Altar without obtaining a tourist visa or a vehicle permit.
For residents of Caborca, it means lower value-added taxes and minimal duties on large purchases made in the United States, including automobiles.
The change, which takes effect Jan. 1, is intended to increase the economic competitiveness of Caborca with nearby border cities, such as Nogales and San Luis Rio Colorado, Fox said in Caborca on Monday.
"Here we are close to the most important economy in the world, which is that of the United States, and that economy has caused much of the development of the border zones," Fox said.
Caborca is about 125 miles southwest of Tucson, but it's much farther by road.
The declaration will not change procedures along the most direct route from Tucson to Caborca - via Nogales. Visitors will still be required to obtain a visa and vehicle permit at the checkpoint 13 miles south of the border at Nogales.
But those steps will not be required if you take the three other main routes to Caborca - via the Sonoran towns of Sasabe, Sonoyta or Puerto Peñasco (Rocky Point). The problem with the Sasabe route, the second-most-direct one from Tucson, is that south of the border is an unpaved but maintained toll road to Altar.
For now, there are still checkpoints between Caborca and both Sonoyta and Puerto Peñasco, and it is unclear how officials at those checkpoints will handle travelers to Caborca. However, the undersecretary of tourism for Sonora, Diego Padilla, said he expects those checkpoints to be moved east of Altar within a year.
Padilla said the change of Caborca's status will be especially helpful because on Jan. 1 Mexico is scheduled to drop most of its tariffs on agricultural imports from the United States under the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Caborca's economy is based primarily on agriculture and will likely face U.S. competition.
The change of Caborca's status will also open a new beach area to Arizona tourists who don't want to bother obtaining visas and car permits. The village of El Desemboque is a Seri Indian settlement that so far has little tourist development, Padilla said.
"We hope that with this change, we'll have a couple of trailer parks there in two years," Padilla said.
* Contact reporter Tim Steller at 434-4086 or at steller@azstarnet.com.
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