Frontera NorteSur
November -December  2003

December 18, 2003
Fox Visits Border at Reynosa for International Day of the Migrant

President Fox will visit Reynosa on Thursday, December 18--International Day of the Migrant--to check in on programs that affect Mexican citizens as they return from the US for the holidays. Fox will make three key stops in his visit to Reynosa. He will be accompanied by Interior Secretary Santiago Creel, Tamaulipas Governor Tomás Yarrington, Reynosa Mayor Serapio Cantú and Magdalena Carral Cuevas, the national commissioner of the Programa Paisano. 

According to Carlos Barba Rodríguez, assistant director of the Reynosas' Instituto Nacional de Migración (National Migration Institute), Fox will begin by attending a "Día del Migrante" celebration in Reynosa. 

Later, Fox will visit a Centro de Internación Temporal de Vehículos (Center for the Temporary Importation of Vehicles) to look in on how federal authorities are doing at processing the temporary importation permits for vehicles. 

Such centers exist on the border because people driving foreign automobiles into Mexico must pay for a temporary importation sticker if they want to go more than 30 kilometers (18 miles) into the country. The goal of the program is to prevent people from selling their vehicles while they are in the country. People that do not turn in their stickers are fined. 

Even on days when there are only a few people at a temporary importation center, it can take an hour or more to complete the necessary paperwork and pay for the sticker. In December, when thousands of cars per day are headed into the Mexican interior, the waits can be mcuh worse. 

Finally, Fox will make his customary trip to the border itself where he will inspect the Programa Paisano which seeks to prevent Mexican officials from exploiting Mexicans that return home for the holidays. While at the border, Fox has always greeted fellow Mexicans and asked them how their experience was while crossing the border. 

Source: EnLínea Directa (Reynosa) and El Mañana (Reynosa), December 18, 2003. 

December 11, 2003
Tamaulipas Pesticide Vendors Fined for Violating Food Health Law

So far in 2003, Mexico's federal-level Secretariat of Agriculture, SAGARPA, has fined 60 Tamaulipas businesses for violating regulations related to the sale of pesticides. 

Some companies were fined for selling banned or expired pesticides. Others were punished for selling pesticides without registering them with SAGARPA or for having untrained salespeople handle transactions. 

Fines range from 15,000 to 30,000 pesos (approximately US$1,300 to $2,600) depending on the seriousness of the offense. 

According to Luis Carlos García Albarrán, the head of SAGARPA in Tamaulipas, the primary objective of SAGARPA's enforcement is to make sure that pesticide vendors, distributors and sprayers respect Mexico's food health law called the Ley de Sanidad Vegetal (literally translated as the Vegetable Health Law). 

García says that one of the major problems SAGARPA found is that many of the fined businesses had been selling expired pesticides. 

The state has 145 stores that sell pesticides and 22 companies that apply them. 

Source: El Mañana (Reynosa), December 11, 2003. 

December 5, 2003
80's Australian Band Air Supply Detained in Nuevo Laredo for Immigration Violations

The November 4, 2003 detention of the 80's Australian band Air Supply in Nuevo Laredo demonstrates that even fading international music stars need to get work visas when playing concerts in Mexico.

The duo Air Supply and eleven musicians and technicians were detained by Mexican immigration officials for immigration violations after they finished a successful show in Nuevo Laredo. Taken to the offices of the Instituto Nacional de Migración (National Migration Institute, INM) at the Juárez-Lincoln International Bridge, the musicians and their sound crew were allowed to return to their hotel and spend the night there.

However, before leaving the building, band members and crew had to surrender their passports to guarantee that they would return the next day to legalize their stay in the country, pay fines and deal with other penalties, an INM spokesperson stated. 

The band's manager told the Nuevo Laredo newspaper El Mañana that he did not understand why the group was treated with such hostility by the INM. He said that they had only gone to Mexico to do their job and make money. 

The INM ignored the band's complaints saying that agents had been present throughout the entire concert and could have cancelled it given the group's legal status. 

Source: El Mañana (Nuevo Laredo), December 5, 2003. Article by Sergio Garza.

December 2, 2003
Pemex Signing Contracts with Mexican and Foreign Companies to Exploit Burgos Basin

Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex), Mexico's national oil company, has signed a third Multiple Services Contract to exploit natural gas reserves in the nation's Burgos Basin. This most recent contract is with a Mexican-Argentine consortium and will result in the investment of just over one billion dollars in Mexico. 

The Mexican-Argentine consortium will be responsible for developing gas production in the Misión Block of the Burgos Basin. It will also build infrastructure and maintain production in the block which covers parts of Tamaulipas and Nuevo León. Natural gas production will take place at the rate of 91 million cubic feet per day. 

The consortium is comprised of the Mexican company Industrial Perforadora de Campeche and the Argentine company Techint and its subsidiary Tecpetrol. Pemex said that this Multiple Services Contract (MSC) is intended to increase Mexico's production of natural gas and to help end the costly importation of natural gas to Mexico. 

On November 14, 2003, Mexico signed its first MSC in the Burgos Basin with the Spanish company Repsol. This first contract's value is over US$2.4 billion--the largest project in the history of Pemex. 

On November 21, 2003, Pemex signed its second MSC with a Mexican-Brazilian-Japanese consortium. It is valued at US$260 million. 

By taking advantage of its investors' efficiencies, Pemex notes that it will save US$750 million. The contracts will also result in nearly US$4 billion in investments and the production of 400 million cubic feet of natural gas per day. 

Pemex expects an important, positive economic impact on Northeastern Mexico because of the development of the Burgos Basin which underlies Tamaulipas, Nuevo León and Coahuila. 

Source: EnLínea Directa.info (Tamaulipas), November 29, 2003. 

November 3, 2003
Burgos Basin to Provide Jobs and a Clean Environment, Say Officials

Over the next twenty years, Tamaulipas development officials project that 15,000 jobs will be created through the exploitation of natural gas in the Burgos Basin. The extensive natural gas resources of the basin underlie the states of Tamaulipas, Nuevo León and Coahuila and are considered by Mexico to be an important part of the nation's energy future. 

Jorge Reyes Moreno, head of Economic Development and Employment for the state of Tamaulipas, presented a Burgos Basin job-creation program to representatives of the state's business community. Small and medium businesses will be significant sources of job creation in the new plan. 

Reyes also stated that Pemex (Petróleos Mexicanos) will channel its largest investments to the northern part of Tamaulipas. This will include the cities of Valle Hermoso, Río Bravo and Reynosa. 

Besides bringing job opportunities, the development of the Burgos Basin will also provide water, electricity and new homes to the region, according to Juan José de la Fuente Saldívar, a local business representative. 

Juan Manuel Sánchez Bujanos, speaking for Pemex, stated that the development plan for the Burgos Basin outlines the sustainable environmental norms that will guide drilling in the basin. 

Despite Sánchez's desire to maintain a clean environment throughout the basin, development already underway has shown that Pemex may need to better its current environmental practices. 

In January 2003 of this year, Frontera NorteSur reported that the basin was Tamaulipas' largest environmental problem, according to Profepa, Mexico's equivalent to the US EPA. 

To read this article go to: http://www.nmsu.edu/~frontera/feb03/envi.html

Source: El Mañana (Reynosa), November 3, 2003.