Frontera NorteSur
March 2001

March 30, 2001
US Recession Affects Matamoros

An article in the Matamoros newspaper El Mañana states that unemployment, a slow down in the trucking industry and the stagnation of tourism are some of the effects in Matamoros of the US recession.

Juan Villafuerte Morales, spokesperson for the Maquiladora Industry Workers' Union (Sindicato de Jornaleros y Obreros Industriales de la Industria Maquiladora, SJOIIM), stated that two Matamoros companies have closed and that eight automobile-industry related maquiladoras are facing a difficult situation.

According to Villafuerte, the companies that have terminated the most workers are those in the autoparts and auto-electronics industries such as Rimir, Deltrónicos, Componentes Mecánicos, Trico, Teccor, Kemet, Condura, Autotrim and Shott. While companies in these industries have stopped hiring, Villafuerte says that other electronics and textile maquiladoras are still hiring.

The SJOIIM organizes over 50,000 workers and reports that in the last two months 1,100 workers have lost their jobs. Another 1,500 have been laid off and receive 60% of their salary.

Source: El Mañana, March 27, 2001. Article by Mauro L. de la Fuente Loayzat.

March 28, 2001
Matamoros Journalist Murdered

Just five weeks after a journalist was murdered in Ojinaga, Chihuahua for allegedly revealing the location of drug warehouse near Chihuahua City, Saúl Antonio Martínez Gutiérrez, the assistant director of the Matamoros, Tamaulipas newspaper El Imparcial was kidnapped, tortured and killed. Police believe that Martínez was murdered by drug traffickers because of the manner in which he was killed and because of evidence found at the scene of the murder.

Martínez disappeared Friday afternoon March 23 and was found dead in his SUV at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 24. The journalist apparently suffered brutal torture according to a police doctor who said that the head and throat of the victim showed signs of having been beaten with a blunt object. Martínez died from four gun shots to the head from a 9mm pistol.

Matamoros news organizations have demanded via press, radio and television that the Tamaulipas Attorney General's Office quickly resolve the case so that the killers do not remain unpunished. They have also demanded that the state guarantee that they will be able to safely perform their work in the future.

Source: El Diario, March 27, 2001.

March 26, 2001
Tamaulipas Labor Shortage--Government Acknowledges the Role of Low Wages

In a statement that is rarely found in a Mexican border newspaper, Miguel Manzur Pedraza, the Tamaulipas state director of Commerce, linked low wages to the state's labor shortage. In other border states such as Chihuahua, commerce officials do not mention this connection and even propose bringing in workers from southern states like Chiapas and Veracruz rather than discuss wage increases.

Manzur told Reynosa's El Mañana that the state has highly-qualified workers but that many of them will not accept low-paying jobs and instead seek out alternative sources of income.

Low salaries also contribute to employee mobility, Manzur said. He also stated that "at this point in time no one with a family can live on the minimum wage." The Mexican minimum wage is approximately US$4/day.

Manzur also told El Mañana that increased industrial, commercial and tourist growth in Tamaulipas over the last five years has contributed to the lack of personnel necessary to meet the demand for labor.

Source: El Mañana (Reynosa), March 26, 2001.

March 22, 2001
Army Has New Nuevo Laredo Phone Number to Inform on Narcotraffickers

General Rafael de Jesús Ballesteros Topete has announced the creation of a new telephone number, 712-90-08, by which Nuevo Laredo citizens can inform the Army about narcotrafficking.

Ballesteros, the new commander of the Nuevo Laredo garrison Guarnición de la Plaza, was interviewed two days after taking over his new job and announced the existence of the new phone number which is dedicated 24 hours a day to receiving calls related to drug trafficking in the area.

"It's a public service," the general said about the new number. "Many citizens do not know which part of government to turn to when they want to inform on drug trafficking. We want them to know that they can call the Guarnición."

Ballesteros says that he prefers that people identify themselves when they call but understands that some may need to remain anonymous so as to protect themselves.

"We do not investigate, rather we let the right authorities know about the case," the general stated.

"The Mexican Army has always fought the drug trade," said Ballesteros. "The difference now is that the city's people can now use this telephone number so that their complaints can be heard 365 days a year, 24 hours a day."

Source: El Mañana (Nuevo Laredo), March 22, 2001. Article by Silvia Alvarez.

March 20, 2001
Gender Roles Discussed in Nuevo Laredo Press

In reply to a statement by the Mexican Secretary of Work (Secretario de Trabajo), Carlos Abascal, who said that "women should return to the home instead of trying to position themselves at the same level of men," Dr. Martha Marmolejo Salinas, executive coordinator of the Women's Development Council, stated that such changes would not help anyone, especially women.

"We women have given great benefits to humanity, not only at the level of the family but also to culture and work. I feel that little by little women have come to standout in the professional arena as well," said Marmolejo.

Marmolejo also stated that the involvement of women in public and professional life is very important and that comments like those made by Abascal hurt women and take away their desire to move ahead in life. She said that with people like Abascal in government it will be very hard for women to get ahead in the working world.

Marmolejo continued, "Here in Nuevo Laredo we see that the majority of maquiladoras prefer women to men. Being women allows us to be more honest, humane and responsible. As women we have to work harder to get noticed."

Marmolejo also said that it is very challenging to be a professional woman as one must be a worker, mother and homemaker.

Source: El Mañana, March 20, 2001. Article by Ericka M. Morales.

March 16, 2001
Massive Service Cuts for Late-Paying Electrical Users in Reynosa

José Velázquez Casillas, superintendent of the División Golfo-Norte of the Comisión Federal de Electricidad (Federal Electricity Commission, CFE), has announced that the CFE is training workers to cut off electrical service to people and businesses that are behind in their payments. Velázquez said that approximately 200 homes or businesses will have their electricity cut off daily and he recognizes that the CFE does not have the resources to quickly reconnect its accounts. With 10,500 late accounts, Velázquez says that Reynosa has the highest level of unpaid accounts in the Golfo-Norte region.

Velázquez says that many homes are four to five payments behind for their electrical service. While these homes have been permitted to stay connected to the electrical grid because the total amount owed is small, they will now face power cuts because they have missed so many payments. The CFE bills only every other month so many of these delinquent accounts are now almost one-year overdue.

The reconnection fee for domestic users is 88 pesos (approximately US$9) and goes as high as 360 pesos for business accounts.

Source: El Mañana (Reynosa), March 16, 2001.

March 14, 2001
Water Issues in Nuevo Laredo

José Manuel Suárez López, director of the Comisión Municipal de Alcantarillado y Agua Potable (City Sewer and Drinking Water Commission, Comapa), says that despite low levels of water in the Amistad dam there are sufficient water supplies for Nuevo Laredo's human consumption over the next three years.

To insure future water availability Nuevo Laredo is taking a number of steps. These include a 25% reduction in water flow from midnight until 6 a.m. The city also seeks to stop water loss due to leaks in pipes. Currently 30% of the city's water is considered to be lost. 15% of water loss is due to leaks in the system, 10% is lost to theft and 5% is lost in Comapa's operations.

The city will also begin drilling 700 meters down into a nearby aquifer that will serve as an alternative source for city drinking water. Suárez said, "We know that there is an aquifer that runs below the El Carrizo ejido that flows into the river near the treatment plant. It is there that we will begin looking for water."

The city wants to achieve a pumping rate of 2,000 cubic meters per second which is said to be sufficient for all the city's needs.

Source: El Mañana (Nuevo Laredo), March 14, 2001. Article by Gastón Monge.

March 12, 2001
Traffickers Arrested for Using and Renting Children to Move People and Drugs Across Border

The Reynosa, Tamaulipas newspaper El Mañana reports that the US Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) has arrested four parents for allegedly renting their children to human and drug traffickers. Two men were arrested for human and drug trafficking as well. The six are part of a ring of Hondurans that allegedly have been operating for three years in Matamoros, Brownsville, Harlingen, Corpus Christi and Houston.

The traffickers were allegedly paying parents between US$200 and US$500 to use their young children to cross drugs and people into the US. This practice has been growing in recent years on the border because traffickers believe that children will not be prosecuted to the same extent as adults if at all. However, this case shows that the INS is now pursuing the adults behind such cases.
One child involved in the case was only seven-months old when her mother allegedly rented her to a trafficker for US$200.

Source: El Mañana de Reynosa, March 12, 2001.

March 5-9, 2001
No articles. FNS in Tamaulipas.

March 4, 2001
Workers at Río Bravo Duro Plant Vote Against Independent Union

The McAllen, Texas newspaper, The Monitor, reports that workers at the Duro Bag maquiladora in Río Bravo, Tamaulipas have chosen to stay with their current union, the CROC (Confederación Revolucionaria de Obreros y Campesinos, Revolutionary Confederation of Laborers and Farmworkers), by a vote of 497 to 4. The losing party in the election was a new, independent union that appeared to have had wide support in the weeks before the election.

Articles in The Monitor report that workers were intimidated by as many as 50 men prior to the election. When reporters from The Monitor tried to interview some of these men they were met with threats. US human rights and labor observers that gathered outside the Duro plant during the election told the newspaper that they were harassed by Mexican immigration officials.

Both workers and company management told The Monitor that voting took place in front of company officials. As FNS reported earlier in the week, labor supporters have said that this is a violation of the NAFTA Labor Side Accords.

Source: The Monitor (McAllen, Texas), March 3, 2001. Articles by Sean Marciniak, Leonardo Andrade and Melissa Sattley.

March 2, 2001
Duro Plant Workers In Río Bravo Vote Today in Tense Election

Workers at the Duro Bag maquiladora in Río Bravo, Tamaulipas will vote today to determine which union will represent them in the future. Reynosa's El Mañana newspaper reports that Duro's current union leaders are worried that foreign activists may resort to violence in the plant elections.

El Mañana also reported that Conrado Hinojosa Tijerina, whose relation to the situation was not clarified by the newspaper, stated that Martha Ojeda Domínguez is the head of agitators that have been "assaulting" the plant's workers.

Ojeda, director of the US-based Center for Justice in the Maquiladoras (CJM), said in a February 22, 2001 news release that fair elections will be impossible for the Duro workers. Referring to a lack of secret balloting by which workers can vote in private, Ojeda stated, "In the last NAFTA Labor Side Accords case the PRI government agreed to implement secret ballot elections. Now it appears the new Fox government is reneging and showing that it has even less respect for workers than did the PRI."

Ojeda also wants the election to be held in a neutral place, not the Duro plant. She stated, "The election is on company premises where entry is controlled by management. Workers have been told to wait to be called to vote. The election is at 9:30 a.m. Second and third shift workers must find transportation to return to work and then gain entry to the building if they want to vote."

Also alleged by Ojeda is that management has threatened to close the plant if workers vote for an independent union. She has also alleged that, "The plant manager has told workers that if they vote for the independent union they will be fired."

The CJM also reports that police are following and harassing Duro independent union organizers.

El Mañana reports that the election is to be held today between 8 and 9 a.m. The results should be known this morning according to the newspaper.

Source: El Mañana, March 2, 2001.

February 28, 2001
Mexican Officials State that US Unions Want to Destabilize Mexican Unions

Jesús Mendoza Reyes, secretary general of the Matamoros union SITPME, confirmed statements by Carlos Abascal, the secretario de Trabajo (secretary of work), that US unions seek to destabilize Mexican unions.

Mendoza said that the problem is most common in companies established along the border as US unions believe that Mexican jobs there should belong to them. He also pointed out that US unions are trying to scare away investment, particularly that which comes from the US.

Mendoza stated that Matamoros has been fortunate that problems created by agitators have not become too serious although they have managed to give a bad reputation to some plants established in the city.

The SITPME, through its union representatives, is alerting workers so that they are not fooled by agitators that only want to close their plants, according to Mendoza.

Mendoza also mentioned that in its twelve years of operations, the SITPME has confronted at least a dozen agitators all of whom have been expelled from Matamoros because they pose a threat to workers.

[FNS note: it's rare that a couple months go by without an article from the Matamoros press that quotes union leaders as saying that they are protecting their workers from US-backed agitators. For more information on this phenomena go to the FNS archives at http://www.nmsu.edu/~frontera/sep00/feat2.html]

Source: El Mañana, February 24, 2001. Article by Mauro L. de la Fuente Loayzat.