Article about Mexico Becoming Trump’s Wall

[louisarogers]

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/07/opini...rants.html

[DonJuane]

Right on with this one! Coming into Mexico from Guatemala last year in a camper, the border crossing at Ciudad Hidalgo at Southern Chiapas had changed from a sleepy fellow in a rocking chair that I had encountered while crossing 15 years ago and which today had morphed into a present time war-zone like campus. I almost fainted as I pulled into a giant whitewashed fortress with a total of 4 x-ray machines that we were sent through. All the food in the refrigerator without "Hecho en Mexico" stamped on a sealed package was confiscated and thrown into a trash bin. We were bordered and searched 3 additional times before even reaching 7KM into Mexico. At the final "drive by" x-ray machine, I was flagged down to pull over and boarded and ordered to dissemble the bed in the camper so they could see what was under it. No problem si no hable ingles, as the guard that entered the camper was waving around an Android device that barked out orders from his Spanish turned into English via some quite bitchy sounding translate "ap". This crossing was worse than anything I've encountered in the US or any other border actually in any country in the US, Mexico or Central America in the past. A real gestapo type "operation".

A few weeks later and after an unfortunate set of circumstances which involved my losing my passport, while being unable to fly without it and taking my only alternative of riding a bus from Tuxtla Guiterez to Mexico City to get a replacement, my bus was boarded about every hour by Mexican authorities who would walk up and down the isles asking for documents and stopping to focus on anyone who had a strange accent. Can you imagine being without a passport or visa in this situation and each time of many check-point stops, never even being asked once for any of my own "papers" while everyone with Latin heritage was interrogated. I was sweating bullets, I have to tell you. And while there must have been only 30 or so on that bus, over the period of that very long trip (14 hrs +/-) we lost 6 passengers who were dragged off the bus when they didn't answer a question exactly to the officer's liking.

There's no better way in fact to get into the heart of the darker side of this culture than to ride a bus in a border zone, and speaking from a perspective of either north or south. It continues to amaze me what the US does to Latin people in these areas. I was riding the Dallas to San Miguel de Allende bus when one July our bus was pulled over just south of San Antonio where the uniformed Texas crew spent over an hour going over a full bus inspection, measuring, removing panels that I have no ideal what for. (Note I was the only Gringo on board.) During that period the bus engine was ordered off and the passengers (including me) were ordered to remain on the bus and without the ability to open a single window. Babies were crying and mother's gasping for air as we sweltered in the heat. I was about to explode at the obvious showing of "cockiness" of the officers as I watched them strutting around the vehicle and it was so clear they were simply harassing us. At least when being harrased by Mexican authorities in the past, they order you out of the vehicle which fortunately provides a reprieve from being locked in some hot box.

I documented this incident and sent letters to Gov (at the time) Rick Perry and my congressmen and I noted later that I've never seen anyone pulled over at that inspection station south of San Antonio since that incident and I can only hope that my letters did some good. However, no one will ever know.