1st Mexican truck rolls across border under cover of darkness
Pastor Dale Morgan
1st Mexican truck rolls across border under cover of darkness*
Official: 'Logistical Trans-Corridor of North America' open for business
Posted: September 8, 2007
Trucker.com
The first Mexican truck authorized by a Bush administration program
opening U.S. highways to trucking companies from south of the border
crossed into the U.S. this morning at approximately 1:50 a.m. EDT at
Laredo, Texas, headed for North Carolina, according to a report from
Trucker.com.
Research indicates Transportes Olympic, the Mexican trucking firm
sending this morning's tractor trailer north, was actually selected to
be the first across the border nearly six months ago, despite the
administration's "last-minute" announcement of the carrier earlier this
week – a revelation that has been described as an example of "stealth."
The designation of Transportes Olympic actually was made at a Feb. 22,
2007, ceremony held in Apodaca, a municipality of the city of Monterrey
in the Mexican state Nuevo Leon, the headquarters location of
Transportes Olympic.
The government ceremony in Mexico went virtually unreported in the U.S.
media.
In attendance were Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters, together
with her Mexican counterpart, Luis Téllez, secretary of communications
and transportation, and José Natividad Gonzáles Parás, governor of Nuevo
Leon.
There Peters officially blessed Transportes Olympic as the first Mexican
trucking company that would be allowed to operate freely in the U.S.
under NAFTA.
That Transportes Olympic had been selected months earlier was not
disclosed last Thursday when John Hill, administrator of the Federal
Motor Carrier Administration, announced Transportes Olympic to the U.S.
public.
Hill's announcement came in a dramatic, surprise late-night telephone
conference held with selected members of the U.S. media at 9:00 p.m.
EDT, after many deadlines had past for filing Friday morning stories.
At the February ceremony, Gov. Gonzáles Parás took the occasion to make
two other declarations that have not been reported in the U.S. media.
In speaking to the group assembled at the Transportes Olympic
headquarters, Gonzáles Parás announced the Trans-Texas Corridor was not
just the NAFTA Superhighway, but the "Logistical Trans-Corridor of North
America," uniting Mexico, the U.S., and Canada.
Gonzáles Parás next announced that the time had arrived to declare a
North American Economic Community.
Gonzáles Parás explained the Trans-Texas Corridor was more accurately
known in Mexico as the "Logistical Trans-Corridor of North America."
"I want to let you know how much we in this border state of Nuevo Leon
have been working with our neighbor state of Texas," Gonzáles Parás
said, "making agreements which permit us to enrich what in Texas is
called the 'Trans-Texas Corridor,' but what we in Mexico know as the
'Logistical Corridor of North America.'"
"We – Canada, the United States, and Mexico – have to perfect this
Logistical Trans-Corridor of North America for our mutual benefit,"
Gonzáles Parás continued.
Gonzáles Parás expanded his vision of to include the construction of a
train and truck corridor that would cut through the heart of North America.
In his speech, Gonzáles Parás confirmed what was described as a new
NAFTA Superhighway, the first segment of which is the planned
four-football-fields-wide Trans-Texas Corridor which the Texas
Department of Transportation plans to build parallel to Interstate 35.
Explaining Nuevo Leon finds itself right at the center of this
Logistical Corridor of North America, Gonzáles Parás said Mexico "must
synchronize our truck and train systems of transportation and our
maritime port connections" with those of the United States, anticipating
the massive quantity of freight that will need to be carried from the
ports in Mexico on the Pacific to the heart of North America.
A report in the Mexican press added that Téllez also used the February
ceremony to announce Presidents Felipe Calderon and George Bush had
agreed to create "an economically integrated North America."
On Friday, after discovering the report about the February ceremony in
Mexico, a call was made to Todd Spencer, executive vice president of the
Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, and we read him the
newspaper article.
"Unfortunately, I'm not surprised," Spencer said. "This confirms what we
have long believed. You have to read what the Mexican government says in
Spanish to know what the Bush administration is doing with Mexican
trucks, or for that matter, anything else that affects Mexico and the
United States."
"The Bush administration pursues a stealth policy in the United States
when it comes to Mexico," Spencer emphasized. "The Bush administration
acts like they want to hide from the American public and from the U.S.
Congress what they are really doing behind the scenes to open our
borders with Mexico."
"Put simply," Spencer continued, "the policy of the Bush administration
is to be less than honest with the American public and Congress when it
comes to Mexico."
WND has experience which confirms Spencer's comments.
Breaking the news, the Department of Transportation Mexican truck
demonstration project was scheduled to start early this month by reading
reports in Spanish on the Mexican government Department of
Transportation's website.
There, in Spanish, were statements by Mexican Transportation Secretary
Luis Téllez announcing 37 Mexican trucking companies had satisfactorily
met U.S. DOT requirements for participating in the test and the start
date was scheduled to be Sept. 1.
Throughout August, DOT and FMCSA worked furiously behind closed doors to
craft a highly technical regulatory response to the legal requirements
of Congress.
Throughout last month, DOT and FMCSA spokesmen maintained a policy of
saying nothing to Congress or to the U.S. media, even when directly
asked when the Mexican trucking demonstration project was scheduled to
start.
Even after Thursday's FMSCA announcement that the DOT Mexican truck
demonstration project was ready to launch, WND continued to experience
difficulties getting any response from the Bush administration.
As recently as last Friday, we were unable to receive return phone calls
from DOT and FMCSA spokesmen.
Congress in 2002 blocked the Mexican truck demonstration project by
inserting into the FY 2002 DOT appropriations bill a prohibition against
starting the project until 22 specified safety requirements had been met
by FMCSA.
Last Thursday saw a flurry of activity as DOT and FMCSA bureaucrats
worked to make sure they were in technical compliance with these
Congressional requirements.
The inspector general's report was finally delivered to Congress, dated
Thursday.
Peters wrote a sign-off letter to Vice President Cheney just hours
before Hill made his evening telephone call naming Transportes Olympic
as the first Mexican trucking company the agency had certified.
Spencer objected that DOT and FMCSA did not file in the Federal Register
the final go-ahead decision.
"What happened to the 10-day period for public comment?" Spencer asked?.
"DOT and FMCSA may have complied with the letter of the law, but they
where nowhere near complying with the spirit of what Congress had
required."