Mexicans living in New York feel that one of the main problems confronting them as a community lies within their own consulate. Far from facilitating the procedures and applications with which the Mexicans need to comply, the consulate fails in the transmission of documents and even in the defense of their compatriots' rights and interests, according to the conclusions of a report which will be published today, Friday.

The association known as the Movimiento por Justicia en El Barrio (Movement for Justice in El Barrio) conducted a series of interviews with Mexicans living in New York, by means of both group meetings and individually. The conclusion drawn from this survey was that there is a great discontent with the way the Mexicans are treated by their own consular authorities.

The report, titled Exclusión Global: el papel de Consulado Mexicano (Global Exclusion: the Role of the Mexican Consulate) – obtained exclusively by El Diario/La Prensa – indicates that the problems run the gamut from "daily and repeated frustrations" to failures "which compromise the system as a whole."

Juan Haro, director of the Movement for Justice in El Barrio, said yesterday that the survey made inquiries of some 760 persons who had had various kinds of business with the consulate between January and March of this year, under the management of the present Consul General, Rubén Beltrán Guerrero. He added that one of every three people indicated that the consulate did not succeed in resolving their concerns, no matter how many times they had gone there to try to solve a problem.

"This result is similar to the one we got in 2007, when 650 people were asked for their responses, and 35 percent of the community said they had had major problems with the consulate," Haro pointed out.

Another conclusion drawn from the report is that one of every three Mexicans finds the personnel of the Mexican Consulate to be inattentive and/or rude. By the same token, one of every four people surveyed said the personnel did not know how to do their jobs. Fifty-three percent said they had been faced with problems using the telephone system when they called for assistance.

The Consulate of Mexico in New York, which also has jurisdiction in Connecticut and thirteen counties of New Jersey, refused yesterday to comment on the report. "We will not comment... that is what we were instructed to do," said an official who asked not to be identified.