Archives for March 2009

– by Rick Hepting and 2 anonymous reporters

On March 5, 2009, at the International Friendship Club (IFC) there was a presentation by the Puerto Vallarta local Immigration Delegate, Lic. Alejandro Sandoval Hernandez and his assistants, with explanations by Kelly Trainor, the US Consular Agent, regarding enforcement of regulations concerning expat participation in volunteer work in Puerto Vallarta and in Mexico, generally.

The Mexican Immigration Department is concerned that American and Canadian visitors and tourists are taking jobs from Mexican workers by pretending to “volunteer” at local charities, businesses or events.

IN SUMMARY:

• If you are a short-term visitor with an FMT tourist visa and do a small amount of charitable work here during your vacation, you are fine and there is no problem. You need do nothing extra.
• If you do regularly voluntary non-lucrative work for one or more charities (say once a week or more) it would be advisable for you to get a notation in your FM2 or FM3 to let immigration know of your activities.
• If the purpose of the volunteer effort is to raise money for any purpose, whatsoever, a visa endorsement is mandatory.

To obtain this visa endorsement, a passport and FM2 or FM3 must be presented to the Immigration Office with a letter request (in Spanish), together with a conformation letter of need (in Spanish) from the non-profit organization (Samples of these letters are available at the IFC).

Each request is judged on its merits and the proper endorsement will be issued by Immigration within 10 days after being submitted to the Immigration office. If the volunteer work would/could displace a Mexican worker from employment the Immigration officer will decide if the requested endorsement for volunteer work is appropriate.

Volunteering for income producing activities (such as acting in a theater company) without authorization may result in a significant monetary fine and possibly jeopardize one’s tourist privileges in Mexico. If volunteering, a person should keep a copy of his endorsed FM2 or FM3 with him/her at all times while performing that service.

This recent “crackdown” on volunteerism began because there are “too many tourists, visitors, non-working residents, etc” working illegally in bars, restaurants, real estate, theaters, etc. and Immigration wants to control these illegal activities. These violators are its main focus. At the same time, however, many volunteers, donating their time for good causes, can be caught in the crossfire. Remuneration of any type (food, discounts, event admissions) are counted in the same manner as cash payment.

ALSO:

People that volunteer their time as members of the boards of Condominium Associations (or any type of “board”), should also get a letter from the administrator of the condominium stating their roles and the fact that there is no remuneration. They should take this letter, along with their own letter (as explained previously) to the Immigration Office.

If a request is made for a visa amendment for volunteer work in the next four or five weeks (during March, 2009), Lic.(licenciado) Alejandro Sandoval has stated that it should not be necessary to stand in line with everybody else at Immigration.

There WILL be a form letter available so only your name and the charity’s name and your activity will need to be inserted (From now on, all charities should be registered with Immigration, which will facilitate this process).

These are not new regulations according to the officials. They have been on the books for a long time. Immigration is being more aggressive about enforcement because of perceived and real abuses.

This article is a compilation of the reporting of two members of the VallaraScene Forum who attended this meeting at the IFC on March 5, 2009.

Where to begin?…

– By Rick Hepting
March 2, 2009

For background, I run a forum in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, and the most popular posts lately have been in reference to fears of the “dangers” of traveling and living in Mexico.

I live in Puerto Vallarta permanently and have for three years. Before that I visited Vallarta many times and was a bit of of a snow bird, coming and going with the seasons. I have traveled in many parts of Mexico, as well as South East Asia, the US and Europe.

I’m not a normal tourist by any measure, and I frequent many parts of this town that most tourists would never consider visiting and, certainly, no tourist guide would ever recommend. I live in a barrio, of sorts, far from the gringo enclaves and condo developments. And I don’t blend: I’m an old gringo with red hair, blue eyes and freckles.

The American and Canadian media have been painting Mexico with a broad brush of danger and fear: Heads rolling into nightclubs, police being gunned down in their driveways, tourists being knifed in their condos, etc. Mexico is now being compared to Middle East war zones by US Pentagon spokesmen.

Supposedly, 6000 people have been killed in the “drug war” here last year (2008). I say “supposedly” because this figure discounts the people normally killed in those cosmopolitan areas and supposes that the cause and motives are the same in all of these deaths. It’s a lot of deaths.

• I have had a friend here mugged at 3 am when he was walking home drunk from a night of partying. He was beaten and kicked when he didn’t let go of his camera bag.
• I know of another person who challenged a burglar in his condo (there because the balcony door had been left open), and he was killed when the burglar picked up a kitchen knife to try to get away.
• There is a report of a gay man who was given a “date rape” drug in a strip bar and then robbed and beaten. Details are sketchy on this instance, but you get the picture.
• A transsexual was killed a year ago when she had an argument with a trick over payment (or so the street story goes…).
• A young man was killed almost 2 years ago when he withdrew thousands of dollars from a bank and fought to keep it as he was being robbed.

These are all real stories and all horrible and all things that could happen anywhere. I know. I have lived in places, like Oakland, California, where life was described by everyone as a “war zone.”

To some, this statement of perspective and universality is a deflection from the “dangers of Mexico” that are now being portrayed nightly on all major US and Canadian media outlets.

To others, this is the reality of anyone who has any life experience in any place in the world. I don’t believe that I left any major “crime” involving tourists out here in the last several years.

So why this media blitz about the “dangers” of Mexico? And, more importantly, why is any of this “sky is falling” propaganda rubbing off on Puerto Vallarta, which is definitely outside of any drug cartel battle grounds?

I don’t have a clue. The cynic in me says that it’s just a marketing ploy by the “buy at home” tourist industries of the North, but can big business really be that cold as to slander a whole nation to get a few more tourists to spend their extra $$ locally? I don’t think so, but I’m not one of those trying to get that tourist $$.

Should tourists be warned of the dangers here? Of course, but, then, they are already warned by any travel guide or travel agent in the world that they would talk to. The warnings are standard for any country:

• Don’t display ostentatious wealth inappropriately
• Don’t engage in illegal activity
• Keep aware of your surroundings.

Many people on vacation try to make over the locaton of that vacation to fit an idealized version of their homes, often forgetting that their homes are no where near any imagined ideal. This tendency is the concept behind the walled, AI (All Inclusive) compounds being constructed in Nuevo Vallarta, it is the concept behind the tacky, white bread, Taco Bells of life.

Mexico isn’t Taco Bell.

One last comment about the “Mexican Cartel Drug War.”
The question no one asks is what, exactly, are the “cartels” fighting over? It would seem that they are fighting over access to the huge drug market in the US. I’ve heard no other reasons.

If so, does that mean that the actual sale and distribution of drugs in the US is so easy and so readily accessible that outsiders are fighting each other simply to reach it? If so, the problem, as well as the solution, would seem to be in the US, not in Mexico.