When Michael Gomez was mayor of Douglas for four years ending this month, he invited his counterpart from across the border several times for visits.
Vicente Terán, the mayor of Agua Prieta from 2009 till early this year, never showed up.
"I invited him to many functions, and so did the Mexican consulate, but he never did come over," Gomez said.
Terán was the subject of my story, published Sunday, about the persistence of political bosses in Mexico despite the country's democratic development. One of the details I didn't cover was the issue of whether Terán can cross the border, a topic that's often discussed in the Douglas-Agua Prieta area.
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In the 2009 campaign, opponents openly pointed to Terán's inability to cross the border as a sign that the United States government sees him as so suspicious that they won't issue him a visa. Now, Terán is running for Sonora's legislature, and his wife, Irma Villalobos, is running for mayor of Agua Prieta.
Teran supporter Roberto Moreno, who runs a trucking firm in the area, gave me a tour of some Agua Prieta sites and recalled dismissively the talk from political opponents.
"Everybody makes a big deal about him not crossing," Moreno said.
Terán himself declined an interview for the story, but his campaign sent Moreno as a representative while Terán was out of town.
As I mentioned in Sunday's story, the Dallas Morning News revealed in a 1997 story that the DEA once considered Terán a top-echelon drug trafficker.
In 1997, Terán did interviews following the revelation of the DEA's view of him, and he mentioned that he possessed a border-crossing card that allowed him to cross the border freely. But sometime between then and now, friends and foes acknowledge, Terán practically ceased crossing.
In October 2002, the old border-crossing cards became invalid. Holders needed to apply for a new, more secure document called a laser visa. It's unclear if Terán has one, but it is possible to apply for one-time visas allowing a person to cross for a specific purpose.
Terán's friend and colleague Ray Borane, the former mayor of Douglas, said Terán crossed the line once about a year ago when a family member was receiving medical treatment. That's the only time in recent years that people I interviewed could remember Terán crossing.
Officials of the US consulate in Nogales, Sonora told me they could not comment on any individual's visa status.
