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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | November 2005 
Shoppers Ignore Call to Boycott Stores
 Arturo Salinas - Associated Press
Tijuana - Shoppers in Tijuana ignored calls for a boycott of U.S. stores to protest U.S. volunteer patrols on the California- Mexico border, instead pouring into San Diego to take advantage of Friday's Thanksgiving weekend sales.
Motorists waited in marathon lines for up to three hours at the San Ysidro bridge to head northward on one of the United States' busiest shopping days of the year.
On the U.S. side of border, there were lines of up to 200 people at bargain-packed stores.
The boycott was called by a Tijuana group calling itself the Zapatista Front.
The group objects to the so-called Minutemen project, in which volunteers from across the United States have converged on California and other border states to look out for migrants trying to sneak into the United States.
The Minutemen claim they are trying to uphold the law and are akin to a neighborhood watch scheme. However, some migrant advocate groups accuse them of being vigilantes who intimidate and attack undocumented workers.
The U.S. Border Patrol has said the Minutemen can get in their way by setting off sensors and make their job more difficult.
"We don't cross the border or buy in the United States because of our disgust at the Minutemen and racism," said Zapatista Front member Carmen Valadez, who stood at the international bridge protesting with about 10 others.
Most Tijuana shoppers paid the demonstrators little attention.
"There were some beautiful promotions. I liked it very much," said Tijuana resident Eden Perez, as she came back into Mexico.
Zapatista rebels in Chiapas have announced the disbanding of a unit called the Zapatista Front as part of a new political approach in a bid to expand the rebel's own movement. It was unclear whether the disbanded group was the same one calling for the Friday boycott. |
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