MATA VIOLENCE THREATENS THE MAQUILAS

By Juan Montoya
Although no city or county official will admit that the delay at the West Rail Bridge may have something to do with the usual payoffs to organized crime on the Mexican side, there is no getting around the fact that the violence that has plagued the region has spilled over to the maquiladoras.
We were touching base with a local businessman with interests in several of those so-called "twin-plant" operations and he was telling us that one of his managers (a woman) had beseeched him to provide some sort of protection for her and her employees following a harrowing experience with a group of armed men in a maquila located along the Sendero Nacional.
This is not the first time that running gun battles between rival armed groups have been reported along that road, but up to now, the workers and the management of the maquilas had been off limits to the mayhem.
No more, said the businessman.
"Now the manager is asking me to provide protection for her after she was followed by four armed men up to the factory gate," he said. "But private security groups aren't allowed to carry firearms in Mexico."
He said he had been approached by a group formed of former FBI agents who provided security and protection for private companies and was still trying to determine if it would be feasible to hire them to protect his employees in Matamoros.
Why is this important?
The maquilas that dot the Sendero Nacional represent more than 100 blue-chip companies from the United States that make everything from electric components to moldings for General Motor cars. They employ literally thousands of Matamoros and Tamaulipas residents. If the armed violence that has plagued this region disturbs their production by threatening its management, the disruption could prove anathema to the maquilas. As lucrative to local businessmen and multinational corporations as they are, the ability for businessmen such as our friend to make them safe for workers and management is critical.
"I have to come up with something to make them feel safe or else it could be trouble for everyone," he said as he took a phone call and we left him to his business.
So who will look out to protect the labor in this critical economic component for the north Mexico region, especially for Matamoros? The Matamoros Mayor Alfonso Sanchez Garza? Hell, he lives in Brownsville as does his father. The honchos of the federal and state police? They and their families live over here, too. Or will they, like the bridge construction company on the Mexican side, have to pay protection to La Maña, La Mano Negra, or whoever runs that piece of the river?