Shopping in TJ
December 11, 2005
Tijuana News
Buccaneer Products, Inc.
Mexican consumers are finding many bargains this Christmas
shopping season. Movie lovers, for instance, can easily
run across cheap DVDs that sell for as little as three for
$10 dollars. For just a few bucks, film buffs can laugh at
Shrek, sway with Shakira, sing-a-long with the Beatles and
see Hitler commit suicide. As one seller of the DVDs
admitted, the products are so cheap because they
are "pirate" made. Despite reported record seizures of
contraband products, pirate-made DVDs, CDs and other goods
are readily available on the US-Mexico border and in the
Mexican interior.
In Tijuana, the Attorney General of the Republic (PGR)
recently reported that it had confiscated 196, 377 pirate-
made items from the beginning of 2005 until October 31 of
this year. Seventeen people were also detained in the PGR
operations. According to PGR spokesman Abraham Sarabia,
the contraband seizures represented a big jump over 2004's
figure of 143,236 confiscated items. For the first time,
the Tijuana municipal administration participated in
pirate patrols and confiscated 50,000 CDs and DVDs that
were turned over to the PGR. Apart from the illegal
recordings, the PGR also seized pirate computer programs,
clothing, shoes and wine.
Jaime Valdovino Machado, the president of the Tijuana
branch of the Canaco business association, contended a
double-standard exists for established, tax-paying
merchants in spite of the raids. "There are Chinese
products on display for everyone to see in all the
informal businesses," Valdovino said. "We all know that
they don't (legally) import them, because it is illogical
to think that they are going to pay duties."
In contrast to Tijuana, the city government of Ciudad
Juarez is not involved in confiscating pirate-made goods.
But Jorge Alvarez Compean, the municipal secretary,
acknowledged that the pirate product phenomenon persists
on such a massive scale in Ciudad Juarez that peddlers
even offer home-delivery service.
"Everyone knows that large quantities of contraband exist
in our locality, whether they are cigarettes, liquor or
Chinese goods...they'll bring it to your house," Compean
said.
Additional sources: Frontera, December 8, 2005. Article by
Daniel Salinas. El Diario de Juarez, December 10, 2005.
Article by Juan de Dios Olivas.
Frontera NorteSur (FNS): on-line, U.S.-Mexico border news
Center for Latin American and Border Studies
New Mexico State University
Las Cruces, New Mexico
My smidgen of a claim to fame is that I have had so many really good friends. By Bernie Swaim December 2007
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