SAN DIEGO — A spate of unhappy news involving U.S. visitors to Baja California that has roiled passions along the international border has some Baja officials worried about the possible harm to their all-important tourism industry.
It was bad enough, tourism officials say, that Mexico's federal government abruptly unveiled a fee of 150 pesos--about $16--that must be paid by visitors who stay more than three days or venture south of Ensenada. (Within Baja California, the fee was changed so it now applies only to visits longer than three days, regardless of the destination).
Then two automobile crashes involving Southern Californians prompted furious criticism that Mexican authorities kept family members from transporting the injured Americans to San Diego trauma centers until they paid high bail amounts.
The string of calamities has ensnarled even a force as formidable as the U.S. Marines. A Marine sergeant who inadvertently crossed into Mexico while on duty was jailed in Tijuana for two weeks on gun charges stemming from two disassembled weapons found in his truck. He was finally released Nov. 12 after members of San Diego's congressional delegation appealed to President Clinton and Mexican Atty. Gen. Jorge Madrazo.
In Ensenada, meanwhile, some U.S. citizens are fighting in court to hold onto homes they have leased for years on disputed land.
And as if anyone needed more reason not to visit, there have been misunderstandings over a new Mexican requirement that drivers begin paying a deposit Dec. 1 when taking a U.S. car into the interior of Mexico. Baja California is exempt from this fee.
Even Baja's staunchest promoters concede that the incidents--replete with questionable decisions, misunderstanding and finger-pointing--have amounted to a public relations nightmare.
"We are concerned," said Ives Lelevier, executive director of Tijuana's Convention and Visitors Bureau. "I can assure you it's having a negative impact. I can't tell you 5% or 10% or 15%. But I can assure you, it's having a negative effect."
Scattered reports of hotel cancellations are but one sign of trouble. The pair of crashes and the incarceration of Marine Sgt. Brian Johnston became incendiary fodder for U.S. talk-radio hosts and prompted off-the-cuff proposals for a boycott of Mexico by residents of the largest U.S. city on the Southwest border. Letters to the editor in the local newspaper have seethed with indignation. Officials at the Mexican Consulate in San Diego found themselves barraged by hateful telephone calls.
