Reporters on the Job: Tangled in Mexican tape

Staff writer Sara Miller Llana has dealt with plenty of red tape since arriving in Mexico, so she empathizes with the “victims” in today’s story.

“My work visa, which was only supposed to take a couple weeks to be processed, took four months. And until you have a visa here, you can’t do anything. You need it to open a bank account, get a cellphone, and - most important - get your furniture across the border,” she says.

“In my neighborhood in Mexico City, you can show up at your favorite restaurant to find it’s closed because of some mysterious request for documentation or because they violated some procedure,” says Sara.