Frontera NorteSur
 November 2002

November 25, 2002
Nuevo Laredo City Councilors' Christmas Bonus Equals 14,400 Hours of Minimum Wage Labor

City councilors in Nuevo Laredo will receive Christmas bonuses of 90,000 pesos (approximately US$9,000) in 2002, according to an article in the Nuevo Laredo newspaper El Mañana. A worker earning Mexico's minimum wage would have to work 14,400 hours at approximately 6 pesos (US$0.63) per hour to earn this amount. Looked at another way, this is nearly seven years of full-time work for someone making the minimum wage in Nuevo Laredo. 

El Mañana also pointed out that the councilors' bonus is 75 times greater than the 1,200 peso (US$120) bonus that most workers get. 

Nuevo Laredo city workers were shocked by the size of the councilors' bonus--and a bit jealous as well--according to El Mañana. 

A city gardener, Antonio Fermín, who earns 583 pesos (US$58) a week does not know how much his Christmas bonus will be and he is not even sure he will get one.  "I'd be glad not to get fired, although I would like it if they paid me the Christmas bonus. But why are they paying the city councilors so much? I don't see them doing too much. I believe that all city workers should receive the bonus because it's mandated by law."

Alfredo Armendáriz, who earns 700 pesos (US$70) a week, said that he may get a year-end bonus of about 1500 pesos (US$150). If he were to receive the councilors' 90,000 peso bonus he said he would take a trip and have money left over. 

"I work more than 8 hours a day and I earn 619 pesos a week. And I don't even know if they're going to pay my Christmas bonus. They haven't told me anything. However, I hope so because I really need the money. The truth is, I'm jealous that they pay the councilors so much especially when not all of them work," said Jorge Israel, a city worker. 

Source: El Mañana (Nuevo Laredo), November 25, 2002. Article by Silvia Alvarez Araiza. 

November 20, 2002
Surprise Raids against Nuevo Laredo Organized Crime are Cloaked in Secrecy

On November 19, for the third time in less than a week, the Mexican Army and the Unidad Especializada contra la Delincuencia Organizada (Specialized Unit Against Organized Crime, UEDO) raided two homes. 

While staff from the Nuevo Laredo newspaper El Mañana believed that they saw the confiscation of a jeep and long arms during the raids, there have been no arrests and no press conferences about the Army-UEDO operations. 

Sources within the Mexican Federal Attorney General's Office that asked to remain anonymous told El Mañana that the raids have been planned from Mexico City and involve the work of undercover UEDO agents and testimony from people in the federal witness protection program. 

No one from the Agencia Federal de Investigaciones (Federal Investigation Agency, AFI) or local law enforcement has been involved in the operations, according to El Mañana. 

The same sources in the Attorney General's Office said that there are orders to not include the AFI or city police in the investigations. Orders were also given to remain quiet about the operations.

In the past, there have been cases in which some members of the AFI have been linked to corruption. This may explain why the agency has been excluded from the operations.  

Also according to the Attorney General's Office, El Mañana learned that the search warrants used in the case were issued by judges in Mexico City. 

Source: El Mañana (Nuevo Laredo), November 20, 2002. Article by Ricardo Flores Alvarez.

November 13, 2002 
Reynosa Migrant Shelter to Seek German Funding

Arturo Solís Gómez, head of the not-for-profit Centro de Estudios Fronterizos y de Promoción de los Derechos Humanos, A.C. (Center for Border Studies and the Promotion of Human Rights, Cefprodac), will meet in Geneva, Switzerland with representatives from Adveniat and Misereor, two German foundations, to discuss funding possibilities for a Reynosa migrant shelter. 

Located near Reynosa's central plaza, the city's migrant shelter is a place where people stay after they have been unable to enter the US or have yet to try to enter the neighboring country. It was built with a 50-person capacity but now holds three times that number.

Going next week to Geneva to attend the UN's annual human rights assembly, Solís will ask the German organizations to help fund a larger facility. If successful, the current shelter would be converted into offices and a receiving area. 

Solís has already received permission from Francisco Javier Chavolla, the head of the Catholic diocese, to seek the needed funding. The shelter was originally built by the Parroquia de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe. 

According to its web site (http://www.misereor.de/), Misereor "was founded in 1958 as an agency 'against hunger and disease in the world'. In its capacity as the overseas development agency of the Catholic Church in Germany, it offers to cooperate in a spirit of partnership with all people of goodwill to promote development, fight worldwide poverty, liberate people from injustice, exercise solidarity with the poor and the persecuted, and help create 'One World'." 

Adveniat, also a Catholic charity active in Latin America, is on line at http://www.adveniat.de/.

Source: El Mañana (Reynosa), November 13, 2002.

November 4, 2002
Reynosa Floods Affect Thousands

Ten consecutive days of rain in Reynosa have produced that city's worst floods in fifteen years, according to the Reynosa newspaper El Mañana. In some neighborhoods, water is over one meter (three feet) high and is impeding cars and even busses. 

In poorer neighborhoods like Lucio Blanco, Esperanza and Satélite e Independenica, 1,500 people have had water fill their homes. El Mañana noted that these neighborhoods were built on land that was sold by its previous owner because it would flood and was therefore useless. 

The mayor of Reynosa, Serapio Cantú Barragán, went to flooded neighborhoods on Sunday, November 3. Cantú led a group of people that brought clothes, shoes and medical support to the communities. 

The governor of Tamaulipas, Tomás Yarrington, promised Cantú his absolute and inconditional support, the mayor said. Cantú also stated that he would request funds from the federal government's National Disaster Fund (Fondo Nacional de Desastres). 

Source: El Mañana (Reynosa), November 4, 2002.

November 1, 2002
Matamoros Police to be Evaluated

Matamoros is currently in the process of examining its five hundred city police officers to make sure that they are physically and mentally fit to serve their community. 

Rubén González Barrer, the city's secretary of public security, told the Matamoros newspaper El Bravo that all Matamoros police agents will be evaluated according to the guidelines put forth in the Programa Nacional de Evaluación (National Evaluation Progam). 

IQ exams and tests of police-specific knowledge will be given to Matamoros police officers by the Centro Nacional de Evaluación (National Evaluation Center). Medical and drug testing will be performed by a local hospital. Staff from the Secretary of National Defense will perform physical tests. 

González also stated that the first class of Police Academy graduates have joined the Matamoros police force. 

The aim of the police testing, according to González, is to continue professionalizing Matamoros police agents. González said that police professionalization has been a goal of Matamoros Mayor Mario Zolezzi García.

Source: El Bravo (Matamoros), October 28, 2002. Article by Nannette Sedas.