George Terrazas of El Paso made it a point to go to Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. Photo Bruce Berman for The New York Times

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George Terrazas of El Paso made it a point to go to Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. Photo Bruce Berman for The New York Times by patgarcia

Gas prices do not represent another serious problem to the economy of mexican working class in northen states, but our tomatoe trucks have been stopped at the border because of the salmonella outbreak. Tomatoes from Baja California were declared clean.

June 25

CIUDAD JUÁREZ, Mexico — When George Terrazas was mugged at gunpoint in this Mexican border city several months ago, he vowed never to return.

That, however, was before gasoline hit $4 a gallon in his hometown, El Paso, just across the border.
On Saturday, Mr. Terrazas was back in Ciudad Juárez, wooed by its irresistibly low-priced gasoline — around $2.66 a gallon — even if not quite unfazed by the indiscriminate gunfire from dueling drug cartels that has contributed to a 2008 average of three killings a day in the city.

“I don’t feel comfortable here,” he said, “but I can’t even fill the tank on the U.S. side.”

June 16

SAN DIEGO–The kilometre-long queue of cars heading north at the U.S.-Mexico border usually contrasts starkly with the handful of vehicles waiting to go south.

So it's with a certain irony that an increasing number of Californians have been heading south to take advantage of cheaper gas prices.

A gallon of regular unleaded gasoline in San Diego averages $4.61 (U.S.). A few kilometres south, in Tijuana, it's about $2.54 – even less if you pay in pesos.

TIJUANA – At the Pemex gas station on Boulevard Bellas Artes, just a few blocks from the Otay Mesa border crossing, a gallon of Magna gasoline costs $2.54. Or slightly less, if you pay in pesos.

A comparable gallon of unleaded regular gasoline is selling in San Diego County at an average price of $4.61, according to the Utility Consumers' Action Network.

Lower gas prices mean American motorists could save almost $54 filling up a two-year-old Ford F150 pickup with a 26-gallon fuel tank in Mexico, or more than $38 to fill a 2006 Toyota Camry with an 18.5-gallon tank.

Gasoline prices are lower in Mexico because of a government subsidy. Pemex, Mexico's government-owned oil monopoly, supplies all gasoline throughout the country to its station franchises.

Last month, President Felipe Calderón announced a $20 billion subsidy as an emergency measure intended to keep inflationary forces in check.