I went to lunch today with some people from work. We went to the "usual" place Mariscos de la Rosa. They have great seafood and it's always a pleasure to go there. There was a plethora of Kongsberg people there. We had most of the tables in the back of the resturant. One table was all people from the finance department, our table was primaraly people of Plant 4 where I work along with Victor and Miguel from Plant 1. At another table was a couple people from the quality dept.
It was a great lunch and we all a had a good time. On the way back to the Plant we were talking about the happenings in Matamoros. One of the guys in the car told us about an incedent that happened yesterday at another Maquiladora.
The plant manager of this Maquila lives in the U.S. and crosses over to work, as do I. Yesterday he was running late and so he started speeding through town to get to his company.
That is a big mistake in the border cities of Mexico. One of the "hawks" spotted him and called it in to the mobsters, cartel, bad guys, whatever you want to call them. They quickly got on his tail and tried to pull him over. He saw them and sped up, he pulled into his company parking lot and tried to run into the building. There was a car full of the bad guys, probably 7 or 8 of them. They pulled out guns and threatened to shoot him on the spot. This company has a parking lot that is fenced and has security guards. They security guard pleaded with the bad guys to not kill this man. They said "He is an American" "He is the manager of the plant:" and on and on. The bad guys just said that "This guy is an asshole and we want to shoot him'"
After much arguing and yelling they finally dragged him into the building and made him get all the cash that was in the building. The cash amounted to around $15,000 pesos or about $1200 american dollars. The also took the laptop computers from the Engineering department. The plant manager also raises Chihuahua dogs and had brought some puppies for some of his employees. They cartel guys also took them.
After all was done, they did not shoot this poor man but they did take what they could and then they escorted him to the border to make sure that he left the country. It is unlikely that he will ever return to Mexico.
So, as I titled this little blog, Some Things Never Change. We see a couple of weeks or a month of quiet and begin to relax. Not to be however, there is an element here in Mexico that does not care what happens to the country, or it's people. If the violence continues eventually the Company owners will move on and the Maquilas will become a thing of the past. Meanwhile I continue to keep on keeping on and hope for a better tomorrow. Peace.
