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SteveD
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Mexico Fired its Customs Agents
MEXICO CITY – Mexico has replaced all 700 of its customs inspectors with agents newly trained to fight drug smuggling.
The government has sent soldiers to airports and border crossings across the country to take back the guns issued to the inspectors.
Tax Administration Service spokesman Pedro Canabal says the officers were not fired. Instead, the agency decided not to rehire them when their
contracts expired over the weekend.
They were replaced with 1,400 newly hired agents who have undergone months of training and background checks to ensure they have no criminal records.
Canabal spoke Sunday to The Associated Press.
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RD55
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They did the same thing about 20 years ago.
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BajaNews
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Mexico replaces customs staff, revamps borders
http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/aug/16/lt-drug-w...
By ALEXANDRA OLSON, The Associated Press
August 16, 2009
MEXICO CITY — Mexico has replaced all 700 of its customs inspectors with agents newly trained to detect contraband, from guns and drugs to TVs and
other big-ticket appliances smuggled to avoid import duties.
The shake-up – part of a broader effort to root out corruption and improve vigilance at Mexican ports with new technology – doubled the size of
Mexico's customs inspection force.
The inspectors at all 49 of Mexico's customs points were replaced with 1,400 better-educated agents who have undergone background checks and months of
training, Tax Administration Service spokesman Pedro Canabal said Sunday.
He said the inspectors were not fired. Instead, government did not rehire them when their contracts expired, Canabal said.
The main focus of the overhaul is to combat tax evasion, although Mexico is also trying to seize more guns smuggled in from the United States and
elsewhere that end up in the hands of ruthless drug gangs. Mexican cartels are responsible for the majority of cocaine smuggled from South America to
the United States.
Canabal said the government hopes to improve its tax collection with the new system, noting that more than 40 percent of Mexico's value-added tax is
collected at customs. However, he said the main benefit will be stopping the flood of pirated and cheap goods that he said undermine Mexican
industries.
Custom inspectors turned over their weapons to soldiers before leaving their posts at airports and border crossings across the country Saturday night.
Enrique Torres, a spokesman for the military and federal police in the northern city of Ciudad Juarez, said soldiers were at the border crossing with
El Paso, Texas, to help avoid violence during the transition.
The new agents, more than 70 percent of whom are university educated, were chosen in a "strict selection process that included psychological and
toxicological checks, as well as the necessary investigations to ensure they have no criminal record," according to a Tax Administration statement.
Canabal said the 700 who were replaced would not be banned from reapplying for their jobs, but would have to meet the new, stricter requirements. He
said less than 10 percent of the ousted staffers have university degrees.
The new agents were trained in legal aspects of foreign trade and taught to use new equipment installed at border crossings, including X-ray and gamma
ray machines to scan for hidden contraband. More dogs trained to sniff out drugs and other banned goods are also being added.
"We need more than just a body with a weapon," Canabal said.
Mexico has been checking only 10 percent of the 230,000 vehicles that cross the border each day, according to the federal Attorney General's Office.
Now, with new technology, agents will weigh and photograph every car and truck that crosses the border and run license plate numbers through a
database of suspicious vehicles in the hopes of catching more hidden contraband.
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arrowhead
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Tomorrow, every newspaper in Mexico will carry complaints from businessmen that this change in the Customs staff is going to "hurt" tourism. In
reality, for them the cost of doing business in Mexico just went way up.
No soy por ni contra apatía.
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tjBill
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One more reason why the wait is going to be longer to enter Mexico. 
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MrBillM
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The Old is New Again
As noted, there was a wholesale firing and hiring 20 (?) years ago and it wasn't a year after that that I paid my first mordida to the new guys.
Time will tell.
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DENNIS
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| Quote: | Originally posted by MrBillM
Time will tell. |
Don't blink. You might miss it.
Remember "Renovácion Moral?" The battle cry of the newly inaugurated De La Madrid administration, He/They were going to put a stop to the mordida at
the border and everybody was going to pay the proper tax to enter with goods from the states. It was a big deal...being renovated like that. It
lasted for about thirty days and life returned to normal.
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Woooosh
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What a system. No wonder they solicit and take bribes- really. Your employment can end when your "contract" does- whatever that means- so youbetter
have some money put away. No notice. nada. The troops show up, take your service gun and tell you are are now unemployed. That system sucks and
it's no wonder there is so much distrust at all levels. There are 700 more angry unemployed today with no money and their kids starting school.
\"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing\"
1961- JFK to Canadian parliament (Edmund Burke)
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DENNIS
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Woooosh
What a system. No wonder they solicit and take bribes- really. Your employment can end when your "contract" does- whatever that means- so youbetter
have some money put away. No notice. nada. That system sucks and it's no wonder there is so much distrust at all levels. |
It would indeed be a strange world if the government that enforces these abusive rules,
http://www.rollybrook.com/employee-pay.htm
enforced them on it's self. Probably won't be happening any time soon.
Whoooosh....do you actually believe this move is without reason or cause? Why should there be protection in a job that pockets the tax money? It
isn't a secret that it happens. How many little payments have you made away from the window? I've paid lots of them.
Were they given notice or advanced warning that the jig was up? I doubt it. It would be like a restaurant owner giving a bartender a two weeks
notice. The cash register would have cobwebs all over it.
Besides, I have to wonder. The report says these replacements are highly trained. How could a training program such as this sneak by without
anybody knowing about it.
Something stinks here. More smoke and mirrors.
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vandenberg
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As guys that carry guns and look at stuff coming into the country, I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of them don't have an "in" with some of the
cartels and are now, since being terminated, highly susceptible to recruitment.
Hard for them to find such a lucrative job as the one they lost.
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TheColoradoDude
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| Quote: | Originally posted by vandenberg
As guys that carry guns and look at stuff coming into the country, I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of them don't have an "in" with some of the
cartels and are now, since being terminated, highly susceptible to recruitment.
Hard for them to find such a lucrative job as the one they lost.
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Your exactly right! The cartels would love to have shared knowledge of border smuggling, what works, what doesn't, and what is never checked.
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DENNIS
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| Quote: | Originally posted by vandenberg
Hard for them to find such a lucrative job as the one they lost.
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True. The last one I had a chat with lives in a nice area of Chula Vista.
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JESSE
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You guys are starting to sound like Mexicans
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Woooosh
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Yes, Dennis I'm sure a lot of them were corrupt. But a contract system of employment for armed border inspectors? That was sort of asking for
trouble to begin with. The most crooked ones will get rewarded with narco jobs and the honest ones are now unemployed. From all the drugs making it
the other way into the USA one could reason there is as much corruption on our side too- but we would never replace them all in one sweep... would we?
\"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing\"
1961- JFK to Canadian parliament (Edmund Burke)
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DENNIS
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| Quote: | Originally posted by JESSE
You guys are starting to sound like Mexicans |
It's about time. 
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DENNIS
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Woooosh
But a contract system of employment for armed border inspectors? |
Our police have unions and they work under a labor contract. What's the difference?
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GC
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The last time I paid duty on funiture at the border it was 19%. Is it the same on electronics, e.g. a television?
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DENNIS
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| Quote: | Originally posted by GC
The last time I paid duty on funiture at the border it was 19%. Is it the same on electronics, e.g. a television? |
Not sure what the current numbers are, George, but they're much higher for electronics, especially those made in China.
A few years back, the duty on our domestic products ran, for me, 14%. It goes up faster than we can keep up with it.
Wonder where they learned that trick.
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Woooosh
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| Quote: | Originally posted by DENNIS
| Quote: | Originally posted by Woooosh
But a contract system of employment for armed border inspectors? |
Our police have unions and they work under a labor contract. What's the difference? |
One is the fire department, police department and every other public service union would walk out in solidarity for them. Then there would be the
legal challenges that would begin stateside and run their course. Here they are on their own I guess. Not that some or most don't deserve it- but it
seems like a funny way to run border security. So how long is the employment contract for the replacements? Oh yeah- now it's an army position so it
will be a revolving door.
[Edited on 8-18-2009 by Woooosh]
\"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing\"
1961- JFK to Canadian parliament (Edmund Burke)
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DENNIS
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Woooosh
but it seems like a funny way to run border security. |
It's not security, whoooosh. It's revenue.
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