Saturday, October 30, 2010

Maquiladora Shooting: A New Issue for US Firms?

Perhaps things are getting serious for US companies operating maquila plants in Mexico.

In the first attack of its kind in more than three years of gangland terror, gunmen in the border city of Ciudad Juarez opened fire early Thursday on two buses carrying employees of a U.S.-owned factory, killing four people and wounding 14 others.

Up to now, employees of maquiladoras were more or less 'off-limits'. There are 300+ foreign-owned plants in Mexico employing 190,000--typically earning $100.00/week or so each.

This line is particularly interesting:

Foreign-owned firms so far have been largely immune from Mexico's rising extortion plague, trade association officials and security consultants say. But they add that some Mexican employees, especially those with knowledge of merchandise shipments, occasionally have been targeted by gangsters.

Why is that interesting?

Police along with federal authorities respond to a drug investigation at Toro's Plymouth Parts Distribution Facility in Plymouth. The facility is located on County Road PP.

Plymouth Police responded to a report of a suspicious incident Thursday morning at the Toro Distribution Plant. The officers learned that a shipment of parts that arrived at the plant also had marijuana.

Distribution channels.

2 comments:

Dan said...

In Chandler AZ., there was a beheading of an illegal alien by two illegal aliens. This is what they do in Mexico, especially in Juearez, where the shooting took place.
I am willing to bet the American companies pay protection money to the drug cartels so that their shipments and workers will be safe.

Beer, Bicycles and the VRWC said...

No doubt there is protection money paid. I suggest we leave the Afghanistan and Iraq to the Afghans and Iraqis (and Iran, I suppose) and get to work on our southern neighbor. This has already spilled into the US and will become a larger problem with time.