Readers sound off: On drug violence in Mexico, free trade harming U.S. manufacturing, and kudos to The Extrusion Expert
By Matt Defosse
Published: September 16th, 2011
Published: September 16th, 2011
A number of articles we published late last week drew extensive commentary from readers. From readers who described leaving Mexico after 7 years due to the increasing violence there, to the spirited discourse on whether free trade truly is harming U.S. manufacturers, to some very nice comments on our new Ask the Extrusion Expert column- we welcome all comments. Keep them clean, keep them civil but definitely keep them coming.
Glenn Beall's editorial that free trade and FTAs have harmed U.S. manufacturing caused some to question his argument, while others were in full agreement. Making a strong argument for free trade was a reader who commented, "Exporting is one of the fastest growing segments of our business! Isn't it natural and smart to see a potential customer base of 6 billion rather than 280 million?"
The give-and-take among readers was very positive. And one came out of the woodwork from Glenn's past, too, writing, "Glenn, I worked for you for 17 years and it was the best 17 years of my life. You ran the company well and we ALL profited from it. You had all molds built and run in this country-and still made a profit. I too believe greed is too rampant in this country."
Join the conversation on free trade here.
Our senior editor Clare Goldsberry, who lives in Arizona and has been in-and-out of Mexico many times through the years, wrote her editorial on "Is Mexico shooting itself in the foot?", a reaction to the drug and gang violence in that country. Plenty of readers shared their own experience working in Mexico's plastics industry, and a few made the argument that legalizing and taxing sales of marijuana would solve much of the drug trade problem.
One insider commented, "I worked in the El Paso/Juarez region for seven years. I left in 2008 because the violence was unimaginably out-of-control. Today, it continues.
Now, even cities that were once considered safe like Monterrey are becoming "killing fields". When I hear statements like, "It's not affecting business...", I know that's the PR office talking. No one wants to admit that there is an issue. Moreover, no one wants to admit that the cartels are operating inside their facilities...and you can be sure they are. It is impossible to escape their influence while doing business on their turf...and that is a fact."
Agree? Disagree? Read Clare's article, your peers' comments and add your own via this link to the article on violence in Mexico and how it threatens the country's manufacturing future.
Falling into the category "Pat yourself on the back" were reader comments to our new weekly column from Allan Griff. The column, "Ask the Extrusion Expert," is an opportunity for readers to ask questions of Allan, one of the industry's sharpest minds and most helpful people too. Allan has the gift of explaining complicated chemistry and plastics processing issues in language that even those of us without his decades of experience can understand and put to good use.
Thanks to those readers and their positive feedback; here's a link to Allan's most recent column.
Our thanks go out to all of our readers. Your feedback, be it positive or negative, is a great help in keeping us on course so we can meet our mission: to provide plastics processors with information they can use to run their businesses more efficiently and more safely.
Thank you Clare. Have you or
Thank you Clare. Have you or anyone else done business with any of the medical device assembly/manufacturing facilities in Tijuana? I would like to know whether they are able to produce quality products, without quality issues, etc. If there are quality issues, I would like to know what you have experienced, any trends, common issues, things to look for, etc. I would also like to know whether there are any communication issues when trying to resolve issues that may crop up. Also, in general, what is the impression of doing business with the medical device manufacturing facilities there?
Thank you!
To Anonymous - I've been to
To Anonymous - I've been to Tijuana (TJ, as it's known)and visited some really nice medical device assembly plants there. TJ is right on the border and there is also problems there. Perhaps not quite as bad as some other places, but one must be careful wherever one goes. There have been several incidences in TJ that I've read about. Perhaps it would be safer to get a U.S.-based manufacturer to do the work. It's too bad that Mexico has become so dangerous.
Clare
I agree the motivation is
I agree the motivation is MONEY.
How do you make drugs less profitable?
Keep in mind that everyone; from the drug lords as well drug enforcement agencies hee and in Mexico are profiting directly and indirectly from this trade.
I would like to know the
I would like to know the environment for the Tijuana region, as my company is looking at outsourcing our manufacturing there. Is this region stable, and what issues may arise, based on your experience?
I worked for one of the
I worked for one of the largest manufacturers in the Juarez region (if not the world). When I first arrived in Mexico in 2001, I had a memorable conversation with a taxi driver. I asked him, "So how bad is the drug situation here?" He was silent and did not even blink. After a long pause he said, "We do not talk about that subject here. No one discusses it." And that was that. It was also a description of the culture of silence that pervades this part of the world. It is a silence fueled by fear. And no one is immune.
Some examples: I remember when one of my employees in El Paso asked if he could take a leave of absence to care for his son. He went on to explain that his son had been confronted by cartel members and accused of leaking information. They forced him to drink sulfuric acid and he lived for about four weeks. Then there was the incident when a high ranking Interpol official visited Juarez with his entourage in roughly 2007. He and most of his associates (men and women) were found in 55 gallon drums filled with concrete with their legs sticking out within days of his arrival. Then there was the mass grave of almost three dozen bodies found in a neighborhood backyard. I also remember when the DEA showed up at our El Paso plant in 2007 and said, "You've got a problem." The problem was that packages were showing up in cities all across the US filled with drugs and our corporate shipping labels were being used. It turned out the cartel had embedded its people into our plant through a temp service. One individual was working the night shift. When the video was studied, it showed him climbing the fence into the inventory area and printing labels out like a pro. He had a half dozen accomplices in companies across El Paso. Last month, this same OEM had a large quantity of drugs show up in their packaged goods at its global distribution center in Wisconsin (evidently the driver missed his rendezvous). The stories are endless.
The best advice I could give anyone is this: The corruption in Mexico and along the US border is so immense that you may as well assume everyone is involved at some level. The most coveted job in a Mexican plant is the Purchasing manager. Why? Because this is where the opportunity to line your pockets is. Another point, information is as good as money in these areas and its pays well. There is a human information chain that rivals the internet in its speed and bandwidth. For example, there was a federal law enforcement agent based out of Chicago who, along with his wife, went to Juarez to adopt a child. On the day they went to pick-up the child in Juarez, their car was cut-off at an intersection and the agent was kidnapped at gunpoint.....and never seen again. What happened? Someone within the adoption services office passed along the information as to the agent's occupation. He was probably tortured in an attempt to identify any contacts within Juarez and then executed.
Most of these stories rarely make it into the media. There is a conspiracy to suppress this information and the motivator is MONEY. Anyone (trade rep) who claims that there is no threat, no broad ranging corruption or no intimidation to cooperate with the cartels is a brazen liar. These are the front men trying to maintain the status quo.
"Polymer Guy"