While lakeside area expats often grouse of being the target of harassment by local traffic cops, the tables turned on Chapala’s traffic department (SVT) commandant Hector Magaña Rios, who was shocked to recently find himself on the receiving end of vile abuse by an expat motorist.
Out working the beat at Chapala’s main intersection on Thursday, May 24, he flagged over a woman behind the wheel a Jalisco-plated car who wasn’t wearing her seat belt. He says the driver nearly ran him down as she pulled over toward the curb and then cussed him out when he approached to check her documents.
He took greater umbrage when she tried get out of a ticket with a 200-peso bribe, on top of calling him an epithet referring to a part of the human anatomy. “She threatened to report me to the commander. I answered, ‘That would be me.’”
Interviewed this week by the Reporter, the driver admitted that she knew buckling up is required by law, that she offered a mordida which Magaña refused and indeed gave him quite an earful.
“He called me a rude American and I fired back, ‘no, I’m a rude Canadian.’ While this was going on I pointed out all the other people who were driving by without their seat belts on, but he just stood there and let them go by while an underling wrote out the ticket.”Claiming she was the victim of “racial profiling,” she says it galls her to see traffic police give a pass to Mexicans driving around with passengers piled up in the beds of their pickup trucks or racing around on ATVs without helmets.
The Canadian appeared at SVT headquarters the next day and, according to staff on duty, launched into another tirade about being fined additionally for an unstrapped passenger when she was traveling alone. The misunderstanding was sorted out with an explanation when that the ticket simply cited the exact language of Jalisco’s traffic code Article 167 Bis. The minimum fine of 600 pesos was slashed in half when she paid within the 10-day grace period.
Magaña adamantly denies the charge that his officers single out expats for unfair treatment. Pulling out copies of the 27 folios (traffic tickets) written up on the date in question, he demonstrated that all but one had been made out to Mexican citizens. Leafing through more than 500 tickets issued over the past two months, he declared that only two or three were handed out to foreigners.
The commandant acknowledges that his superiors recently got on his case after a Guadalajara radio station reported that expats complain of frequent harassment by his agents. They were not able to substantiate misconduct.
“I found the accusation quite strange. Not a single foreigner has come to lodge a complaint since I took charge here two months ago.” On the contrary, the English-speaking chief believes he has built a good rapport with many expats.
“I don’t know how my predecessors acted, but I expect officers under my command to treat everyone equally and in strict adherence to the law.”
Magaña says he would welcome an invitation from the Lake Chapala Society, the American Legion or any other organization interested in scheduling an encounter to discuss common concerns and foster mutual understanding.