The customs of the country

The photo ( from El Debate) is of a recent haul in Los Mochis. Senator María Serrano Serrano (PAN), while making the obligatory statements about problems caused by years of PRI-control, notes that her party, which has controlled the Federal Executive branch since 2000, has not done enough to beef up the customs service… and hence, hauls of contraband weapons like this, are all too common here in Sinaloa … and elsewhere throughout the Republic.

I can’t completely blame the customs agents  After all, the Customs agents … per good “neo-liberal (i.e. conservative economic) reasoning… are not federal employees, but work for IOASA (Integradora de Servicios Operativos S.A.).

IOASA — like some federal agencies run by private companies in other countries — is suspected of having gained government contracts based on political influence, and of being used by political operatives as a cash cow.  Ironically, Senator Serrano’s complaints about the Aduana were aired when she was asked about “disloyalty” by a state legislator from her own party who had not followed the party line on an unrelated matter.  She is forgetting that her party proposed turning Aduana over to IOASA,  using the infamous “Benny the Elephant scandal” (an elephant made it past both U.S. Department of Agriculture inspectors and Mexican Aduana when smuggled from Texas to Mexico City, where he found work as an illegal alien harmonica player).  Benny was allowed to stay, but it gave the Fox administration an excuse to privatize the service.

The Senator is probably just venting her frustration with the failure of Aduana to stop the flow of arms from the United States… but the irony is she is being “disloyal” to her party and her statement that Aduana needed reforming came when she was interviewed about a state party leader’s “disloyalty” (he’d voted in his state legislature to confirm a official the party agreed not to confirm).

The arms trafficking has to be controlled.  Even though the Senator seems to suggest the need for a more militarized or at least paramilitary approach to the problem, at least it is finally being recognized.  The borders don’t need yet another para-military unit, and customs agents should be speeding legitimate commerce and tourists on their way.  There doesn’t seem to be any simple solution.