Lovers Swap Valentines at Border Gap

Tue Feb 15, 8:36 AM ET

By Tim Gaynor

MEXICALI, Mexico (Reuters) - Star-crossed lovers clasped hands,
kissed and exchanged forbidden Valentine's Day (news - web sites)
cards on Monday through a gap in a fence on the heavily guarded U.S.-
Mexico border.

The break in the barrier dividing Calexico, California, from
Mexicali, Mexico, is a popular spot where Mexicans working stateside
come to see and talk to their families back at home.

One of only a few spots in the towns and cities on the 2,000-mile
border where people standing in either country can touch, the two-
mile-long strip gains a special romantic charge on Feb. 14.

From early in the morning, courting couples, husbands and wives and
lovers ambled up to the rust-flecked barrier, searching eagerly for
loved ones emerging from cars and buses on the other side of the
border.

"It's a romantic spot," Mexican stall owner Patricia Estrada said as
she craned her neck to catch sight of a boyfriend on the U.S. side of
the border. "We come here to see loved ones, and pass on messages."

Her boyfriend ambled up the fence sheepishly and the couple clasped
hands. Estrada passed a note to him furtively so that U.S. Border
Patrol agents posted nearby could not see.

Fifteen-foot (4.6-meter) tall metal bars are placed several inches-
long barrier near Tijuana to the west, which will complete security
along a strip running 70 miles from the Pacific into the desert.

Under orders to crack down on people passing notes and packets
through the fence after a rash of recent arrests for drug
trafficking, Border Patrol agents kept a watchful eye on the strip.

"I don't think they'll let us kiss today," young mother Monica
Ramirez said as she waited for her husband Juan Carlos to appear on
the Calexico side. "But just being able to see him and talk to him is
so important."