An encounter with the law

Like in any other place, there are several levels of law enforcement that you see on the roads here in Mexico.

The military. As scary for someone who’s been in the US all their lives might be, you see fully uniformed, fully armed, on duty military personnel in Mexico. They are usually army, we’ve been seeing navy as we approach the coast. These guys are often about 18 years old and they have machine guns. But they are never going to harass a tourist. They are looking for big fish.

Federal police. These guys will often look like they are also the military, what with their full combat uniforms and machine guns. They are also doing their thing in the drug war and like the military, it’s actually good to see them around.

State police. I haven’t dealt with these, but I consider them a bit scarier.

Local police. Now these are the guys who can potentially harass a tourist, specially in smaller towns. I try to never have one of their cars behind the van.

Traffic police. “Tránsito”. They are the bottom of the food chain. They don’t carry guns, and sometimes drive VW bugs. They can ticket you for traffic infractions, sometimes taking away one of your license plates, so you have to go and pay or lose the plate.

As we were driving through Nogales, Veracruz, I saw them in a corner, on the other side of the road. These two guys waved, and then I heard a whistle. As I knew I hadn’t done anything wrong, and since their call was ambiguous enough, I drove on.

A few blocks later, the VW bug comes from behind, passes us, and the driver signals us to stop. They were in uniform and in a Tránsito car, so I did. The guy asked me for the permit for the car, and after looking for it for a bit, I handed it to him. Then he asked me for my license, and to get out of the van to give it to them. I quickly looked for the AAA international license that cost $15 and I don’t care if I lose, and gave them that. I didn’t have a chance to even tell them I had my real license in my pocket.

“Window tint is not legal”
“What?!?”
“Window tint like your van has is not legal”
“That doesn’t make sense. The windshield and driver and passenger windows are not tinted”
“Yes, but you have tinting”
“But that doesn’t make sense. What if I had a van without windows, with just metal on the sides? Is that legal?”
“But window tint is not legal”

This went on (in Spanish, of course) for a while. Until he got specific:

“Window tint ANYWHERE is not legal”
“That’s a lie. That’s not true”. Pro tip: it’s not terribly wise to tell a cop that he’s lying. But it came out that way. This didn’t make sense!
“I don’t think you understand me.”
“I think I understand you PERFECTLY.” I thought he wanted a bribe.
“Ugh. OK, move on. Go.”

So we drove away.

That night, safely under the soothing wifi waves of our $16 hotel room, I searched.

Veracruz has the most stupidly written law about window tint there is. It doesn’t discriminate which window is tinted. It doesn’t discriminate on the amount of tinting (so the mildest possible tint, which is actually invisible to the eye, is also illegal) and worse of all: if the tint is factory applied as opposed to a later add-on, then it is permitted. Talk about criminalizing poverty.

I solved this by downloading a couple of photos of dealer stickers for vans similar to the pony. They all mention window tint. So my tinting is factory, and we’re legal.

I’m waiting to test this method with the next Tránsito cop we meet.

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