SCOTT LINCICOME, an International trade attorney, published author, political adviser and frustrated libertarian had this assessment of the current state of the dispute between the US and Mexico over the illegal ban on Mexican trucks.
Quoting an article from “INSIDE TRADE”, a subscription industry publication:
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Maribeth Mellin, in a special to SFGate.com confirms what I’ve been preaching for years. That Mexico’s roads and rules are nothing like Trucking Bozo and others describe them.
Here’s her article.
I never wanted to be a road warrior in Mexico. For the first 10 years of my adult life, traveling south of the border meant taking a train to Palenque, putting my name in the lottery for a seat on the ferry across the Sea of Cortez, playing gin rummy at the station until the next bus departed , or placing my fate in the hands of a generous Bimbo bread truck driver headed in a promising direction
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The federal government has prompted yet another delay in the implementation of a NAFTA provision that allows Mexican truckers to bring cargo from that country to U.S. markets.
Under the North American Free Trade Agreement, that provision should have gone into effect on Jan. 1, 1995 — more than 14½ years ago.
The U.S. Transportation Department’s inspector general on Wednesday issued a report stating that the department still needs more information to determine if Mexican trucks are safe enough to enter this country.
The report, prepared by department auditors, says that some states don’t adequately report the nationality of people convicted of traffic violations, and that some buses aren’t inspected sufficiently when they cross the border.
This despite a 2007 pilot program that allowed a limited number of Mexican trucks free access throughout the country. Most people didn’t even notice the program was in operation, suggesting there was no sudden rash of accidents due to their presence on U.S. roads.
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A van stuffed front to back with nearly 6,000 pounds of marijuana ran out of gas as it headed toward the Paso Del Norte border crossing and an inspection lane manned by Margarita Crispin, who was sentenced in April 2008 to 20 years in federal prison for helping drug traffickers. PHOTO: DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY OFFICE OF INSPECTOR GENERAL, EL PASO
Andrew Becker placed this follow up in Mother Jones titled “Will Corruption Cross the Line?”
The rumors about Margarita Crispin started soon after her first day as a customs officer in El Paso, Texas. In March 2003, Crispin started working the line at the Paso Del Norte bridge, across from Ciudad Juárez. Nearly one-fifth of all drugs seized coming across the border enter through the El Paso-Juárez area, and the region is viciously contested by Mexican cartels. So when Crispin waved off the dogs that sniff out drugs in the long line of cars waiting to enter the United States, saying she didn’t like them around her, it raised a few eyebrows.
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An offshore oil installation in the Gulf of Mexico Cantarell oil field near the coast of Campeche, Mexico. Pemex, Mexican's national oil company
Normally when someone hears a story about oil theft or criminal groups hacking into pipelines, one thinks of places like Nigeria or Iraq. Unfortunately, oil looting is rampant in Mexico, and it’s costing the government millions.
And it’s not just oil that’s being stolen.
Mexican criminals have been tapping into Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) pipelines for years to steal gasoline, diesel, and even jet fuel, according to Reuters’ reports. Criminals dig up pipelines that are buried in rural areas, attach a valve, and then siphon off the fuel. They usually have no problem selling the stolen fuel to corrupt service station owners or companies that operate large fleets of vehicles in Mexico.
The theft of crude oil is not as common because the oil must be sent somewhere else to be refined into something valuable. Yet, the fact that this is occurring highlights either desperate economic times or very bold criminals. The reality is that it’s probably a little of both.
It sounds almost comical to picture a group of Mexican criminals hacking into a pipeline, filling a truck full of oil, somehow managing to cross the U.S.-Mexico border with all the proper paperwork, then driving up to a refinery and yelling, “Hey! Does anybody want this oil? We’re selling it for cheap!” While that’s not exactly what’s happening, there are individuals in the U.S. that are facilitating this process.
According to MarketWatch, federal documents released on August 21 revealed a Texas chemical plant, owned by German chemical company BASF Corp., bought $2 million worth of petroleum products that had been stolen from Pemex and smuggled across the U.S. border. The documents also showed the stolen condensate passed through several companies’ hands before arriving on a barge at the BASF facility in Port Arthur, Texas.
The actual transport of stolen oil from Mexican pipelines into U.S. corporate hands is complicated at best. Donald Schroeder, former president of Trammo Corp., testified that in January 2009, two companies, Murphy Energy Corporation and Continental Fuels, contacted him. Both wanted to sell him stolen condensate. Apparently he agreed to buy it, and the transfers began. “Unnamed import companies” would sell the condensate to intermediary companies like Continental (which has since shuttered its headquarters in Houston). Those import companies would smuggle the condensate across the border and store it in Continental facilities. No details were available on how those trucks managed to successfully cross the U.S. Mexico border. These piecemeal transfers would continue until there was enough oil in the storage facility to fill a barge and ship to BASF.
Read the rest at Mexidata.info
Sylvia Longmire is a former Air Force officer and Special Agent with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, where she specialized in counterintelligence, counterespionage, and force protection analysis. After being medically retired in 2005, Ms. Longmire worked for almost four years as a Senior Intelligence Analyst for the California State Terrorism Threat Assessment Center, providing daily situational awareness to senior state government officials on southwest border violence and significant events in Latin America. She received her Master’s degree from the University of South Florida in Latin American and Caribbean Studies, with a focus on the Cuban and Guatemalan revolutions. Ms. Longmire is currently an independent consultant and freelance writer. Her website is Mexico’s Drug War; she is a regular contributor to Examiner.com; and her email address isspooky926@gmail.com. She is also a friend of Mexico Trucker Online
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NAFTA compliance, finally / Obama will end 17-year ban on Mexican trucks
Safe Mexican carriers such as this one will soon be seen on US highways as the Obama administration does the right thing and fulfills our promises under NAFTA. The time for the lies, fear mongering and hysteria is over with.
The North American Free Trade Agreement was ratified by Congress almost 17 years ago. It’s about time the United States began honoring a key part of it. A sticking point in the treaty has been the provision allowing truckers from Mexico, Canada and the United States cross-border access to each nation’s highways.
The United States allowed Canadian truckers access, but kept out Mexican trucks. Democratic lawmakers claimed they were worried about “safety concerns” related to the Mexican trucks. But what they were really worried about was how best to cater to labor unions and address the Teamsters’ concerns that Mexican truckers represented unwelcome competition.
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