• LARGEST: A retired colonel took over Monday as manager of Mexico’s largest customs office in the border city of Nuevo Laredo across from Texas following a presidential directive to give the military top posts in the Mexican customs system with the goal to root out corruption.
• MILITARY: Retired from the Mexican Air Force, Raymundo Bautista Contreras, will now manage Mexico’s largest customs port in Nuevo Laredo which accounts for nearly 25 percent of the country’s trade operations and collects 15 percent of Mexico’s total trade duties.
• STRATEGY: “We are here with the firm conviction that together we are going to end with corrupt practices…with this strategy that we are starting today”, said Horacio Duarte, Mexico’s head of customs. “We are cleaning the 49 customs offices of the country”.
• CONCERNS: In mid-2020, president Andrés Manuel López Obrador ordered the Mexican Defense Ministry to take over 32 customs offices and the Navy Ministry to do the same in 17 maritime customs offices. Trade and human rights advocates have raised concerns about the plan.
