PHOTO 1: The tranquil La Paz Malecon waterfront. Pretty much peaceful as ever. 1000 miles away from what's happening up north. I did see some violence last week...two people arguing over a parking space in front of a popular fish taco stand...

BETTER TO LIGHT ONE CANDLE?

Originally published the week of April 7, 2009 in Western Outdoor News


This is your friendly public service announcement.

Obviously, unless you’ve lived on another planet or been in an isolation booth the last 6 months, you’ve heard about the crime issues faced in Mexico. It’s seemingly in every newspaper. CNN runs specials. The internet carries every act of violence and zips it around the planet to more people in shorter time than it takes me to type this sentence.

However, speed does not always equate with clarity. Sensationalism often trumps good accurate reporting.

Our own modern high-tech brains are only as focused as our dwindling attention spans. We blackberry, blog and twitter now. We get our dose of news in 100-word headlines with not much content. We can barely absorb the 6 o’clock news with nothing more taxing to our busy day than 20-second sound bites. We get headlines from talking heads with only a modicum of facts used as filler between the next 20-second-soundbite/headline. I know. I spent many years as a reporter.

Even here in this column, the limits of space prevent more than a smidgen of comment about what’s going on in Mexico and the media-driven perceptions. So, I’m guilty as well. But, I could write a thesis paper on what I know and what I think about the current crime situation.

But, suffice to say, there is indeed a problem.

Yes, it is serious.

No, it’s not all over Mexico

It’s not even all over Baja.

What a lot of folks don’t realize, even frequent long-time Baja visitors, is that Baja is 2 separate states…Baja Norte (Northern Baja) and Baja Sur (Southern Baja). Ensenada is the capital of the former and La Paz is the capital of the latter.

Ninety-nine percent of the violent crime is along the border. It’s not even ALL of northern Baja. Surprise, it’s not even all of Tijuana!
However, Baja Sur wants to keep as much of the ugly stuff out of it’s turf. It’s like Oregon implementing strategies to keep tainted California fruit from coming across.

So, Baja Sur has implemented an extensive three-pronged plan to hopefully keep the bad guys out. It might be like barring the gate when the fox is already in the henhouse, but it’s like that saying “better to light one candle than curse the darkness.”

The moves are meant to keep the barbarians outside the city walls, but also to hopefully instill confidence in locals and travelers that the government is trying. It’s surely got a catchy name/motto titled “Baja California Sur, Estado Seguro.” (Baja Sur, the Safe State). Like Missouri…the “Can Do” state or something like that.

What’s involved is an extensive search and i.d. program at three major areas of entry to the state involving land, sea, and air. . One is at San Ignacio near the border with Northern Baja along the Transpeninsular Highway. The other has been implemented at the busy Cabo Airport.

The third is at the ferry terminal in La Paz to check motorists coming by boat from Sinaloa, home of the notorious Sinaloan drug cartels.

Essentially, both locals and tourists must produce extensive i.d., vehicle registration and are subject to being photographed and fingerprinted. While so far, most tourists have experienced very few problems or been detained, others have been surprised and angered by the searches that can take an hour-or-more. The process is extensive and intrusive.

I applaud the efforts. They are well-intentioned. Mexico needs to clamp down on the crime and it also needs to assure it’s citizens and it’s visitors that it’s safe to travel.

But, I’m not sure how effective this will be. Mexico is caught between a rock and a hard place.

If you’ve ever traveled in other countries, many other nations are used to seeing police presence and searches are not uncommon. Police with guns are normal.

Gringos don’t like being searched. We’re all about “personal space” and we’re really uncomfortable when it’s violated. We don’t like our bags being opened or people poking in our cars. Heck, we surely hate taking our shoes off at the airport, gringos surely aren’t going to like being photographed and fingerprinted just to come down to fish, swim and romp in margaritaville. Oh the indignity. Americans don’t like being touched.

They are also really uncomfortable seeing people…even legit police and army guys…holding automatic weapons. I’ve been searched so many times in 15 years it’s not big deal. I laugh. They laugh. They’re just doing their job. Tourists don’t like that.

So, will this really help keep the tourists coming?

On the other side, with thousands of people traveling in and out of Southern Baja daily, how effective is this? I don’t think they have the resources to detain, search, photo and fingerprint everyone. And so far, the searches have basically turned up car thieves and minor bad guys.

But, they’re trying. I like that they’ve lit a candle. I just hope I’m not in a hurry when I get stopped and I’m having a “good hair” day when I get photographed.



Many thanks to my amigo Pete Thomas of the Los Angeles Times who has written a great sports and outdoor column for years and for keeping us posted and who has a great blog about all this: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/outposts/2009/03/many-arent-awar.html


That’s my story. If you ever want to reach me, my e-mail is riplipboy@aol.com.