In 1849, celebrated French writer Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr penned an eight-word aphorism that has stood the test of time: “Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.” Or as we say in English: “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”
And so it remains along the southern United States border with the nation of Mexico.
Last weekend’s news out of San Diego’s San Ysidro Port of Entry, America’s busiest border crossing, reported that two U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers were arrested and charged with taking bribes. They are alleged to have allowed people to enter the U.S. without showing any documents of any kind – waving through certain vehicles and individuals.
One news outlet published this account. “… CBP (Border Patrol) agents Farlis Almonte and Ricardo Rodriguez worked at the San Ysidro Port of Entry and prosecutors say they let dozens of vehicles carrying illegal immigrants to pass through without proper checks in exchange for thousands of dollars. According to court documents unsealed, investigators found phone messages between the officers and human smugglers in Mexico. They also found large unexplained cash deposits in the officers’ bank accounts.”
That rang a bell … a bell in my memory bank from 33 years ago during a two-hour plus meeting with Harvard-educated then Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari Ph.D. An economist by education and training, he was Mexico’s 60th president, from 1988 to 1994. He ran the powerful ruling party – PRI – which basically ran the country and every aspect of its society.
In 1992, the Texas Daily Newspaper Association (TDNA) Board of Directors requested a fact-finding audience and interview with President Salinas to discuss two major issues of the day – the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the pervasive and growing drug smuggling business along the border.
NAFTA was very controversial. It had been proposed in the early 1990s to establish a free-trade zone in North America between the U.S, Mexico and Canada. It was signed in 1992 and took effect on January 1, 1994. Think about the global political issue of the day with the Trump Administration when you read the next sentence. NAFTA, in 1994, immediately lifted tariffs on the majority of goods produced by the three signatory nations.
All trade became free among the U.S. and our two neighbors. The original NAFTA was replaced by the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) on July 1, 2020.
President Salinas replied to the TDNA request and invited us for a meeting – 30 minutes of his time to begin at 11 a.m. at Los Pinos, then Mexico’s equivalent to our White House. Translated, Los Pinos is “The Pines” and giant pine trees lined the long driveway to the official residence and offices of the Mexican President. It was their country’s political headquarters from 1934 to 2018, until then-President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador was sworn in on December 1, 2018. He converted Los Pinos into what it is today – a public cultural space for a variety of events.
My presence as part of this trip and meeting happened for two reasons – from 1987 to 1996 I was editor and president of the El Paso Herald Post (not being published now) and a member of the TDNA board. It’s not often you are able to sit across or around a table with Mexico’s El Presidente. I mentioned that he was Harvard educated. There was no language issue. His command of English was superior to ours.
At 11:30 a.m. a Gortari staff member walked in to remind him that the meeting’s 30 minutes were up. His reply was crystal clear and with a wave of his hand he said: “I’m very much enjoying this conversation. Bring us all lunch so we may continue.” And we did, for two additional hours. It was not formal at all, just questions and answers with follow-ups and give-and-take conversation. NAFTA dominated through lunch.
The after-lunch conversation lasted until we departed around 1:30 p.m. It focused on the issue we really wanted to discuss – his country’s role in the growing Mexican drug cartel’s illegal drug smuggling industry across our shared border. It was, we quickly learned, a sensitive subject. After the initial question, he sat up and leaned forward with his arms crossed on the big table.
As best as my aging memory can recall, he said: “Gentleman, you must understand this – I probably know more about this subject than you all know, perhaps collectively. It is a very difficult business for our country. Our citizens suffer because of it – cartel killings and their internal battles can do great damage. It is very hard for my government to control. We are working on it.”
Then came the most important thing he said, his words then that are relevant to the news in San Diego.
“I know for a fact that all of these drugs could not possibly be successfully smuggled into your country without la mordida (the bribe in Spanish). Many of your border patrol agents benefit from the mordida along the entire 2,000 miles of our border and I know that for a fact and for a while now. It has been so for many years. It remains so today. It’s a fact.”
His words did not shock us. It was a question we were planning to ask. He preempted the question.
Only one major aspect of this has changed. In 1992 the deadly drug fentanyl was not part of the Mexican drug trade. The drug was developed in 1959 for doctors to use for controlling pain. Somewhere in 2013 and 2014 the deadly fentanyl of today entered the smuggling pipeline. Mostly made in China, it comes into the U.S. through Mexico. Thousands have died in the U.S. from fentanyl overdoes – and that’s just in the U.S.
Gortari, who turned 77 on April 3, knows now what he knew then after the arrests at the San Ysidro port, what writer Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr wrote 176 years ago – the more things change, the more they stay the same. La Mordida veve!
Tom King has been the editor of newspapers in Texas and California and also worked in Tennessee and Georgia. If you have someone you think we should consider featuring, please email him at the link with his name or text him at 865-659-3562.
