Uncovering Mexico
Jeremy Schwartz is the Mexico correspondent for Cox Newspapers. He is based in Mexico City.What's on this page?
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Madrazo’s bizarre explanation
One of the stranger pieces of prose I’ve ever run into popped into my e-mail yesterday afternoon: Roberto Madrazo’s slightly incoherent explanation of the Berlin Marathon cheating scandal that has sullied his reputation.
Madrazo dedicates his explanation to the “Mexican Sports Community,” who he says are the ones who will understand his behavior. Madrazo is accused of taking a shortcut of about nine miles in the marathon. For several days he was crowned the winner of his age division before marathon officials stripped him of his title.
Madrazo doesn’t get to the heart of the matter until the last lines of the message. After blaming the brouhaha on politics and explaining that he didn’t feel well on race day (and relaying that Mexican doctors advised him to rest instead of running the marathon) Madrazo writes: “I had to stop at Kilometer 21 and I went directly to the finish line for my clothes and my medal of participation, the same one given to all runners without exception.”
The problem is, Madrazo’s microchip-based results show he didn’t go directly to the finish line. He ran the last leg of the race, finishing the final five kilometers in 25 minutes, 42 seconds. And the photo of him at the finish line shows him with his arms outstretched, a big grin on his face, clearly relishing the moment.
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The “race” issue: A marathon of troubles for Madrazo
There aren’t many things that can compare to the public humiliation that former presidential candidate Roberto Madrazo has gone through in the last week. While his reputation as a politician was never squeaky clean - allegations of election fraud dogged him for years - his character wasn’t completely annihilated until he ran in a marathon.
It began two Sundays ago at the Berlin Marathon in Germany. Madrazo, a longtime politician with the PRI, Mexico’s former ruling party, had largely dedicated himself to marathon running since his dismal third-place showing in the 2006 presidential election. But in Berlin, something amazing happened: he finished in 2:41:12, a full hour ahead of his personal best and won his age class (55-59).
But a race photographer noticed something strange. Madrazo looked remarkably relaxed and rested and was still wearing a windbreaker despite the heat. Upon closer examination, race officials discovered Madrazo had failed to pass through two electronic checkpoints and his personal microchip showed he had run nine miles in an astounding (and humanly impossible) 21 minutes. Matching up his times with a map of the figure 8-type race course showed Madrazo appeared to have taken a short cut.
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Immigration advocates: Mexico “criminalizing” Central Americans
Mexico’s immigration authority has set off howls from immigrant-rights advocates by announcing plans to fingerprint and photograph the mostly Central American migrants that pass through its detention facilities.
Human rights groups say the new rules show Mexico is treating migrants like criminals, and they are adding them to a list of grievances: Authorities along Mexico’s southern border with Guatemala have long been accused of robbing and attacking Central Americans and human rights groups have decried conditions in Mexico’s detention facilities.
Many have accused Mexican authorities of hypocrisy: demanding fair treatment of Mexicans who cross illegally into the United States while providing less than stellar treatment to the legion of Central Americans who pass through the country on their way north.
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Fox’s legacy taking a beating
Things just keep getting worse for ex-president Vicente Fox. Ever since scandal erupted last week over Fox’s lavish digs at his Guanajuato ranch, it seems each new day brings another revelation related to his wealth. The Mexican Congress is forming a commission to investigate Fox and determine if he used the presidency to get rich.
On the front page of today’s El Universal is splashed a picture of Fox’s bright red Jeep, which a businessman now says he bought for the president at the bequest of Fox’s wife, Marta Sahagun. The problem is, Fox never declared the vehicle in his list of holdings.
Meanwhile, the Reforma newspaper is asking questions about a white Jaguar, which likewise has yet to appear on Fox’s declarations. Reforma also has a story about three employees of the former first lady’s foundation, Vamos Mexico, who apparently have been getting paid by the federal government.
All this adds up to bad news for the former leader, who has been described as hyper-sensitive when it comes to his legacy. In his soon-to-be-released memoir, Fox brags about how different he is from past presidents who fattened their bank accounts while in office and fled the country once their term ended.
A recent poll shows 66 percent of Mexicans now believe Fox engaged in illicit enrichment while in office, while his wife’s favorable rating has plunged from 44 percent in 2005 to 23 percent.
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Going to Mexico City? Put that cigarette out!
Mexico City likes to smoke. Residents smoke in restaurants, cafes, walking through the mall, in the stands at baseball games, at the airport and of course, in bars.
But all that is about to change as the Mexican capital is implementing a tough, American-style smoking law that will ban the nefarious activity from all public, indoor spaces. Restaurants and bars will be allowed to build no-smoking sections, which must be walled off from the rest of the building and have a dedicated ventilation system.
That will be too costly for the vast majority of the city’s hole-in-the wall taquerias, torta joints and cantinas. The city’s restaurant association has blasted the law as “drastic and arbitrary,” according to the local press.
And if the law is to succeed, it will require some drastic changes in the behavior of the locals. Some 40 percent of the city’s population between 12 and 45 smoke, according to the city’s 2006 Addiction Poll.
The smoking law is just the latest to be hailed by social progressives in Mexico City, where lawmakers have approved a gay rights bill and legalized abortion over the last year.
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Dog lovers: stay away from the narcos
A disturbing new trend is popping up along Mexico’s narco battlefields: Dogs are being kidnapped and slain, their bodies dumped with threatening messages.
The trend appears strongest in Culiacan, Sinaloa (home to many powerful drug lords including “El Chapo” Guzman). A month ago, dead dogs were left near a military base, a park and the Red Cross offices, bearing threatening notes. “You’re next, Eddi,” reportedly read one note directed at Gen. Rolando Eugenio Hidalgo Eddi. The dogs also were crowned with headdresses made of flowers.
A grisly hallmark of the ongoing drug war in Mexico are so-called “narco-messages” left with bodies of the executed. Drug gangs have also taken to videotaping executions and distributing them on the Internet.
A fourth dead dog turned up last week in Culiacan with an X-rated message. In April, a man was found tortured and executed along with his murdered dog in Michoacan, at the height of the drug war in that rural state.
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Clock is ticking for street vendors
It looks like Mexico City might be serious about cracking down on street vendors after all.
Many months after he pledged to rid the historic downtown of the illegal sellers, Mayor Marcelo Ebrard last week removed the first of an estimated 20,000 vendors from blocks west of the Zocalo. The plan is to move the street vendors to indoor markets inside buildings expropriated by the government by Oct. 12.
Vendors have bitterly fought their removal from the streets, arguing their sales will plummet if they are cloistered inside a market. However, the powerful leaders of the vendor associations have cut deals with the city government and it appears their removal from the rest of downtown is inevitable. Whether the street vendors return to their posts after the furor dies down is an altogether different story.
Here’s a picture of Eje Central, Mexico City’s Central Boulevard, a few days after the first removal.
And here’s the same street back in the spring when all manner of computer software and bootleg DVDs were available. Ironically, the other side of the street is still filled with vendors who have yet to be removed.
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Graffiti dreams, part III
The search for Mexico’s finest graffiti hit the wild and wooly streets of Nezahualcoyotl, or Neza, or Neza York, depending on who you talk to. This sprawling slum on the outskirts of Mexico City has quite a reputation in the republic. It’s one of those places whose very name makes some people nervous, kind of like the South Bronx or Compton.
This past weekend Neza played host to the Just Writing My Name graffiti festival, which brings together some of the world’s best graffiti artists on a single wall. Past festivals have been held in Moscow, New York and Sao Paolo. This weekend’s edition brought artists from throughout Mexico: Oaxaca, Veracruz, Morelos, Sonora and of course, Mexico City, were well represented, as well as some U.S. border states.
The results were mind-blowing. From a bulletproof Baby Jesus to a snail-riding B-Girl, the pieces stretched the boundaries of creativity. Anyone interested in larger versions for a screensaver or wallpaper can email me at jschwartz@statesman.com.
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Congress to investigate Fox
It’s official: The Mexican Congress decided today to investigate former President Vicente Fox and his lavish ranch house.
Fox set off a firestorm this month when he allowed the celebrity magazine Quien into his opulent home in Guanajuato. Photos of the home (which can be found here) set off howls of protest from his political opponents, who charged the ex-president with enriching himself through the presidency, much as presidents have done throughout Mexico’s history.
Fox however, overturned 71 years of one-party rule and was supposed to have ushered in a government of “change.” Fox has vehemently denied using the presidency to fatten his wallet, and pledged transparency when it comes to his personal wealth. Since his term ended last December, Fox began receiving a $270,000 annual pension.
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Fox shows off his crib, and raises questions about wealth
Following a magazine spread that has all of Mexico talking, former president Vicente Fox and wife Marta Sahagun have got themselves embroiled in festering scandal over their wealth.
Opposition lawmakers claim the couple inappropriately enriched themselves during Fox’s six-year term and are demanding an investigation. Meanwhile, Fox is getting heat for reportedly carting off mountains of official documents for his planned presidential library when he left office.
The trouble started earlier this month when the couple posed for Quien, a glossy celebrity magazine. The couple opened up their sumptuous Guanajuato ranch home, complete with outdoor pool, artificial lake and industrial kitchen.
Soon after, Fox’s former campaign aide, Lino Korrodi, emerged, publicly accusing Fox of having accumulated a “shameless and cynical wealth.”
After further review in Mexico: Get off the Patriots’ back
While the national media in the States has been quick to slap the “cheaters” label on the New England Patriots, observers south of the border are more forgiving when it comes to the three-time Super Bowl champs.
Fernando Von Rossum, perhaps Mexico’s foremost football analyst, blasts American commentators in today’s Reforma newspaper for their indignant diatribes against the Patriots and coach Bill Belichick.
“I’m inclined to think that we are faced with that oh so human condition called envy, in the face of a team and a coach that, like it or not, is currently on a higher plane than its peers and whose only equal at the moment are the champion Indianapolis Colts,” Von Rossum wrote in his column.
Von Rossum, who has covered the NFL for Mexican television for nearly 40 years, goes on to say that the Patriots were correctly penalized for breaking NFL rules, but that the U.S. media suffers from hypocrisy when it bemoans Bellichick’s theft of the New York Jets’ defensive signals.
“Those famous signals are constantly being modified and many players change teams every year, bringing that information with them,” he wrote.
The hottest thing in hair-loss treatments!
As you may be able to tell from the photo that accompanies this blog, my hair is suffering from shall we say, a maturation process. Put less delicately, it is thinning and, if I’m going to be a man about it, is receding (slowly, thank god) at the temples.
On a recent visit to Mexico City, my mother-in-law told me about shampoo made from fiery chiles that are supposed to fortify your hair. The basic idea I think, is that the pugnacious chiles whip your wimpy follicles into shape. The shampoo might not grow new hair, but it could give existing hairs the strength not to tumble out like dandelion seeds.
Strangely enough, the chile shampoo is sold in every subway station in the city at herbal remedy shops. For about $4 I picked up a bottle and set about repairing my scalp. The bottle I bought also contains rosemary and garlic for added power. The shampoo is a deep red and smells of salsa (remember to put it in your hair, not your mouth). You’re supposed to leave it in for the duration of the shower, rinsing just before you get out.
There’s a slight tingle (I’ve heard others actually burn) and thankfully my wife tells me my hair doesn’t smell like a pizza afterwards. It’s a little early to tell if it’s working yet (my heart says it is), but I promise to check in in a few months with some results. Of course if anyone out there has used the chile shampoo, please drop a comment to let us know how it worked.
Best buddies? Not so much.
Back when they were first elected president of their respective countries in 2000, George W. Bush and Vicente Fox of Mexico looked to be the best of friends, holding talks on their ranches like a couple of good ol’ boys.
The truth, it seems, was a little different.
In his autobiography out next month, Fox reportedly talks some smack about his fellow head of state, calling Bush “the cockiest guy I ever met in my life” and writing that his Spanish skills (which he used to great effect during his campaign) were “grade-school level.”
He also slams Bush’s Iraq policies and says he doubted W had what it took to become president. “I can’t honestly say that I had ever seen George W. Bush getting to the White House,” Fox writes, according to the Washington Whispers blog by U.S. News and World Report.
But perhaps it’s not so strange for Fox to take some shots at Bush. He was bitterly disappointed that Bush all but ignored Mexico and immigration reform after 9/11 and he opposed the war in Iraq. By the time Fox left office last year, relations between the two had gotten a little chilly.
Mexicans pay price at the pump
Ordinary Mexicans must wonder sometimes where the benefit is in having one of the world’s major supplies of oil. They certainly don’t see it in the gas prices. Unlike other oil-producing countries, Mexico doesn’t give its citizens cheap gasoline. Whereas Venezuelans pay about 20 cents per gallon (and that pre-dates the socialistic policies of Hugo Chavez), Mexicans pay about $3 a gallon for gasoline from PEMEX, the nationalized gasoline company. And natural gas is equally pricey. My wife and I spend nearly $100 a month on gas for our water heaters and oven.
It’s about to get worse for Mexican drivers. The Mexican Senate last week approved a 5.5 percent increase in gasoline prices as part of a wide-ranging fiscal reform meant to significantly increase the amount of tax revenue Mexico collects. Losing leftist presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has seized on the issue to once again attack President Felipe Calderon, who he accuses of using gasoline to tax those who can least afford it. Calderon is pushing for an overhaul of PEMEX that will allow the struggling entity to spend more money on deep water exploration, considered vital in the face of dwindling reserves.
Calderon would also like to wean the Mexican economy from PEMEX. While ordinary Mexicans may not see the benefits of having all that oil when they fill their tanks, PEMEX accounts for about 40 percent of Mexico’s budget and subsidizes public spending.
Who knew? Guatemala City holds the secret to traffic jams.
As we sped through the pre-dawn streets of Guatemala City on our way to the airport, my wife and I couldn’t help noticing the squadron of 18-wheelers crowding the darkened roads.
Our taxi driver explained that a few weeks ago, the Guatemala City mayor, desperate to ease the city’s traffic, had taken the drastic step of banning tractor trailers and other large trucks from the city’s streets during morning and afternoon rush hours. The drivers had understandably rebelled at the idea of having to work mostly at night and staged a three-day strike that nearly paralyzed the city. In the end though, the city won out and the 18-wheelers have been consigned to night duty ever since.
As we flew home to Mexico City, I couldn’t help wonder how such an idea would work in this megalopolis with its horrendous traffic jams. Mexico City residents spend a good part of their day stuck in traffic and it’s not noteworthy for it to take three hours to get from one side of the city to the other during rush hour. And mingled in with Mexico City’s six million personal vehicles are a legion of tractor trailers.
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Guatemala’s election gets bloody
I had last traveled to Guatemala eight years ago, and when we arrived this week to cover Sunday’s presidential election, I could barely recognize the place. Guatemala City’s airport is something out of “The Jetsons,” thanks to a renovation that rightly claims the government is building Central America’s most modern airport. The area around the airport is filled with towering buildings and the skies are crowded with cranes.
But the apparent affluence that greets the visitor is only a mask over horrible violence that has many here spooked ahead of the election. Depending on whom you talk to, Guatemala has perhaps Latin America’s highest murder rate, far outpacing any U.S. city. The political violence (43 candidates killed so far) seems a remnant of darker times until you learn it’s mostly caused by unbelievably brazen drug cartels.
“Everyone here is very nervous,” Sonia Madrid, an office worker told us as we strolled through a posh Guatemala City mall (malls in the Third World all tend to be very posh).
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No speech? No problem, but the end of a tradition.
So much fuss for so little action. In what goes down as one of the more anticlimactic moments in recent Mexican politics, President Felipe Calderon handed over his first State of the Nation address to a well-behaved Congress this evening.
A week of intense dealmaking had ended with this: Calderon did not give the address as a speech, as presidents have done for decades; instead he merely handed over the written report and will give his speech Sunday morning in the friendlier confines of the National Palace.
In exchange, legislators with the opposition Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) didn’t disrupt his appearance at the Congress. Last year, PRD lawmakers physically prevented then-President Vicente Fox from taking the stage to give the final State of the Nation speech of his term, a humiliation for the outgoing leader. This year, the lawmakers left the congressional hall as a group before Calderon entered.
The negotiation between Calderon’s National Action Party (PAN) and the PRD likely goes much deeper.
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Best of times, worst of times: Celebrating the 100th
I’m sure you’ve all been keeping track, but this is officially the 100th blog entry for Uncovering Mexico (it only took a year to get here).
I’m a sucker for commemorating milestones and also a compulsive list-maker (as a child I faithfully recorded my top 10 favorite songs every week).
So, I present a kind of best/worst list for our first year-and-a-half in Mexico, compiled by me and my wife (and sometimes photographer) Nancy Flores.
As is fitting, we begin with the food.
Best Meals
1)White fish in parsley sauce at the Primer Piso restaurant in Patzcuaro, overlooking the Zocalo. Most heavenly culinary moment in Mexico, and the atmosphere’s not bad either. (Followed closely by the same dish at Villa Casona, our favorite restaurant in Mexico City.)
2)Carnitas in Cotija, Michoacan. This wasn’t the healthiest meal, but the deep fried pork was among the tastiest. Also qualifies as the strangest. It was at a breakfast with the entire police force of Cotija. My wife Nancy and I were the only non-cops or non-elected officials at the long, picnic-style tables. The scene was surreal, but the carnitas, fried up by a local woman, were delectable.
3)Hamburgers in Cerritos, San Luis Potosi. It’s hard to describe how good the hamburgers made by Mexican street vendors are, and the burgers in this small town in northern Mexico were the best. The town was one of a legion in an area nearly emptied by immigration to the U.S. Souped up cars with American license plates zipped around the central plaza, where we found “Hamburguesas Gigantes,” massive burgers topped with ham, three kinds of cheese, and a heaping of mayonnaise. Our friends from home think we’re crazy when we tell them about Mexican street burgers. Believe us. They are awesome.
Dodgiest Hotel
The Motel Ojo de Agua in Juan Aldama, Zacatecas. This was actually our fourth choice in this rough and tumble town in northern Zacatecas, near a Mennonite community we were profiling. The first three hotels fell through when we asked about parking our rental car. All the hotels only had street parking and when we asked if it was safe to park there, all three places told us no, it wasn’t. At least they were honest. We ended up at this highway motel because of the parking in the back. It turned out to be a hotel/bus station and every hour or so a bus load of hungry passengers would pile in. No toilet seats, a faulty lock and a 13-inch TV that got one channel were strikes against.
Best Hotel
The next night we went to the Hotel Emporio in Zacatecas City, which made up for the Ojo de Agua. The amazing location, lush comforters and balcony views of Zacatecas’s spectacular cathedral made this place stand out.
Strangest Night
On a cold, January Saturday night, I found myself in a legal whorehouse filled with shivering transvestites just outside of Saltillo, Coahuila. The border state had just legalized gay civil unions and I was on a nocturnal excursion with some members of a local gay rights group to talk to folks about the new law. The transvestite prostitutes told horrible tales of being attacked and raped and while they were happy about the new law, it was hard to see how it would improve their grim realities.
Coolest City
Hands down it’s Guanajuato, the otherwordly colonial city in central Mexico. We had heard the talk, but this place surpassed all the hype. With narrow, European-style streets, underground tunnels that funnel car traffic out of downtown, and a booming university, Guanajuato feels like no other place in Mexico.
Most Unsettling Moment
Along the Mexico/Guatemala border, we trekked across abandoned railroad tracks with members of Grupo Beta, a governmental group that helps migrants. The tracks were a well-worn path for Central American migrants entering Mexico on the way to the U.S. They were also home to bands of thieves who preyed on the migrants, mostly members of the violent Central American Mara Salvatrucha gangs. As we walked the tracks, we would periodically see groups of men in the distance, not knowing if they were gang members or not. Seeing the uniforms of the Grupo Beta guys, they would scurry into the underbrush. Still, we felt quite vulnerable on that isolated stretch of tracks.
Is another circus on its way? Maybe not.
A year ago this week, Mexican politics reached one its weirdest points in recent memory during President Vicente Fox’s last State of the Nation address. Members of the opposition Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) seized the stage of the Mexican Congress, physically barring the president from entering the hall. A bewildered-looking Fox handed over a written copy of his speech and sped away.
On Saturday, it’s new President Felipe Calderon’s turn. With the PRD (and a sizeable percentage of the population) still convinced Calderon cheated his way to the presidency, what horrors might await the Mexican leader when he enters the Congress?
Surprisingly enough, Calderon might be facing a smooth ride Saturday as he negotiates with what has become a severely divided PRD.
Just a week ago, PRD leaders were telling the media that there was no way Calderon would be permitted to give his speech, that he would be barred by any means necessary. But now it seems that the PRD is willing to negotiate with Calderon and his National Action Party (PAN). From leaked reports, it seems the deal is roughly a trouble-free speech in return for debate on electoral reform, an issue near and dear to the PRD.
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Hurricane Dean takes on Mexico City and wins
Even under perfect conditions, Mexico City’s infrastructure lives on the edge of chaos. Throw in a torrential downpour - like the one that soaked this city yesterday as a result of Hurricane Dean - and the city’s traffic grid seizes like an engine without oil.
The hurricane left historic rainfall amounts in the capital and officials reported that the city’s drainage system reached its maximum capacity at about 8 p.m., just as the rains began to slacken. Whole neighborhoods flooded with filthy black water; major thoroughfares were covered with several feet of water.
When we flew into the airport yesterday evening, fresh from covering Dean’s ravages in the Yucatan, we found the city effectively shut down. It took our cursing taxi driver almost two hours to navigate the gridlocked streets near the airport. It was a terrifying ride, quite frankly, but it seemed as though some unseen algorithm kept the cars from colliding no matter how fast they darted through the smallest of spaces.
Racing the hurricane
We were halfway to Chetumal when we faced a decision. Either continue on and try to reach the path of frightfully powerful Hurricane Dean or head back while we still had enough gas to make it back to civilization.
Once we ventured south of Felipe Carrillo Puerto, a small town on Mexico’s so-called Ruta Maya, we would be entering a no-man’s land of no electricity, no gas and most likely, no cell phone service. That would make filing today’s story tricky to say the least. But the trip to Chetumal offered a once in a lifetime glimpse at the impact of a Category 5 hurricane and the people down there certainly would need international media attention in their drive for relief services.
Hunkering down for hurricane Dean
We awoke this morning to the howling wind, but also to great relief. Category 5 hurricane Dean passed far to the south of Cancun, sparing this resort the brunt of its wrath.
We had been here a few months ago to do a story about beach erosion following 2005’s hurricane Wilma and at the time officials were very nervous about another hurricane hitting the fragile beach. Even direct hit from a Category 3 could spell doom, let alone the 160 m.p.h. winds of Dean. It will be very interesting to see what the beach looks like in a few hours.
We’re about to venture out to the south, to Tulum, and, if the roads are open, toward Chetumal, the nearest city to the eye. Tulum is one Mexico’s truly magical places: you can body surf waves at the edge of Mayan ruins. Hopefully the damage is not too terrible. There haven’t been reports of deaths or injuries yet, but this was a massive and violent storm.
Our hotel in Cancun is an unofficial shelter: its thick walls have acted as a safe haven in many past hurricanes as well. Last night the place was full: relief officials, stranded tourists, and workers with the Mexican power company all crowded the small restaurant. It was an almost festive vibe: we felt very safe here.
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How do you measure the popularity of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, who would have turned 100 this year?
Judging by the monstrous lines outside of the Bellas Artes museum all summer long, Frida has never been more beloved in Mexico. The Bellas Artes exposition was the single largest showing of Frida’s works and brought together far-flung pieces from various private collections.
An estimated 410,000 filed past the exhibition this summer and having witnessed the incredible lines in person, I can attest to the devotion (and saint-like patience) of Frida’s fans. Unfortunately, my wife and I never made it before the exhibition closed this past weekend. Every time we went we were confronted with 3-hour waits and lines snaking for blocks.
Apparently Frida’s works have to return to their respective homes and the exhibition won’t be extended (boo hoo). Congrats to everyone who made it inside.
Above is a self-portrait by Frieda, which the U.S. Postal Service chose to honor the artist in a stamp issued in 2001.
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The most influential Mexican you’ve never heard of
While she is largely unknown beyond Mexico’s borders, there may be no more influential politician in Mexico right now than Elba Esther Gordillo, the boss of the powerful Mexican teachers union.
Gordillo has shown a knack for swinging elections, from the presidency to this month’s governor’s race in Baja California. She is also credited (and blamed) for facilitating passage of a highly controversial pension reform bill and for hand picking officials in the federal education department. [The Economist] magazine (http://www.economist.com/world/la/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9516526) says she may be “the second most powerful politician in the country” behind President Felipe Calderon.
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The parking mafia
Here in Mexico City we don’t have parking meters, we have franeleros. Roughly translated as ragmen, these self-appointed parking officials stake out a street or two in this parking-space starved city and direct cars in and out. They’ll guide you in and then offer to watch your car (or even wash it) — all for a fee, of course. During the day it’s usually just a handful of change, but at night - especially in trendy areas where parking is at a premium - they can charge several dollars per car.
The charge for parking on a public street is theoretically voluntary. In reality almost everyone pays the franeleros, lest their car suffer a nasty dent, flat tire, or worse, disappear. None of this is legal (thanks to a 2004 “Civic Culture” law), but like lots of illegal activities that flourish in the Mexican capital, is supported by a chain of corruption. Neighborhood cops and tow truck drivers reportedly get a taste of the franelero money in exchange for looking the other way or letting the ragmen operate in no-parking areas.
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Majorly awesome: Mexico can’t get enough of Lorena
Mexico awoke Monday to one giant lovefest with golfer Lorena Ochoa, who on Sunday became the first Mexican golfer to win a major tournament. “Grand Goddess” thundered the sports section of the Mexico City daily Reforma. Ochoa managed to knock the opening weekend of the Mexican soccer league off the front pages of most sports sections, a feat almost as difficult as winning the British Open.
Why all the hubbub in a nation that can be accused of a lot of things, but certainly not of being golf crazy? Peruse the nation’s sports sections and you quickly learn the performance of Mexican athletes on the international stage means a lot to the national psyche.
Here in Mexico City, you won’t find many recaps of Major League Baseball games, but you will find daily updates on Mexican players like rookie phenom Yovani Gallardo (tearing it up for the Milwaukee Brewers) and the frustratingly inconsistent Oliver Perez (pitching for the New York Mets). Good, or even decent, performances bring banner headlines.
The same holds true for basketball. You might not be able to find your hometown scores, but you can count on daily stats for native son Eduardo Najera, the Denver Nuggets bench player and certified basketball god south of the border.
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The New Bootlegging Frontier
Bootleggers in Mexico are nothing if not creative.
The latest fad in piracy is putting a recording artist’s entire discography in MP3 format, burning it onto a single disc, and selling it for $2.
In downtown Mexico City, you can find everything recorded by bands like The Strokes, Nirvana and Led Zeppelin, both live and in studio, in one neat little package.
Just the logical culmination of technology and ingenuity. I guess.
I’ve also stumbled on workshops dedicated to making the PlayStation 2 bootlegger-friendly. The game console won’t play cloned games unless, that is, a special chip is welded into its motherboard. On Saturdays at certain markets, you can find lines of kids and grownups alike with their PS2s in hand waiting to see the repairman. After he’s done re-wiring their machines, they can buy burned copies of Madden 2007 or Guitar Hero for less than $1.
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This Just In: Stereotyped Headlines Cause No Stir
Walking around Mexico City last week, I saw a banner headline that made me stop in my tracks.
Zhenli Ye Gon, a suspected pseudephedrine importer who was busted a few months back with more than $200 million stashed in his Mexico City house, had just been arrested in the United States.
The cover of La Prensa, a Mexico City daily, shouted “Aplesado!” That’s just a slightly racist version of Apresado, the Spanish word for captured. The clever editors at La Prensa switched the “r” with an “l,” playing on the stereotype of how Chinese people talk.
It would be like an American newspaper using the headline “Plisoner!” instead of “Prisoner!” or “Rocked Up!” instead of “Locked Up!” above a picture of an Asian person.
It was another reminder that political correctness has yet to take root south of the border.
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Graffiti Dreams Part II
In the second in a very occasional series on street art in Mexico City, I present another sampling of the D.F.’s best graffiti.
As in the first post, these shots are from the wall behind the North Bus Terminal, as depressing a place as you’ll find in the city, until you come upon these gems.
I’ll be off on vacation next week, but will check back in at the beginning of August. Hope you enjoy.
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Oaxaca Rumbles Again: Whither Gueleguetza?
For weeks, tourism officials have been running TV ads announcing the return of Guelaguetza, Oaxaca’s signature cultural festival and a highlight on the state’s tourism calendar (it will be held the next two Mondays).
Last year, Guelaguetza was canceled amid a six-month rebellion that scared off tourists and nearly toppled Gov. Ulises Ruiz. But all that nastiness is behind us, the ads seem to be telling us. Don’t worry, buy your tickets now!
Well, things aren’t looking so rosy in Oaxaca after Monday’s violent confrontation between police and members of the APPO, an umbrella group of protesters that seized control of Oaxaca City last summer.
APPO members attempted to march on the official Guelaguetza auditorium to stage a “people’s Guelaguetza.” The APPO has blasted the official ceremony as the “commercial Guelaguetza” and say it only enriches state officials and hoteliers while exploiting indigenous cultures who live mostly in grinding poverty.
When Different Worlds Meet: Mennonites in Mexico
It was with some trepidation that my wife and I traveled last week to a remote Mennonite community in Zacatecas to do a story on a local dairy farmer who was elected to the state legislature. Mexican Mennonites are notoriously closed from the rest of society and I had images of being chased out of town by angry locals - or at least being given a nasty cold shoulder.
It was Sunday morning when we pulled into La Honda in our rental car and our first glimpse of the Mennonites was a huge line of pickups and SUVs driving down a dirt road from a severe-looking, unmarked church.
Our cell phone didn’t work and we set out in search of a pay phone. After the church procession passed, the streets were completely deserted and the few stores in town were locked up tight (it was Sunday after all). We eventually stumbled on the La Honda Hotel (who would have imagined?) and I went into the office in search of a phone to call the newly elected congressman.
A redheaded, freckle-faced boy of about 16 whipped the cell phone off of his belt and handed it to me. He spoke a heavily accented Spanish and wore the distinctive blue overalls that seem to be a uniform for Mennonite men.
Did Mexican Drug Cartels Agree to a Truce?
Could the Gulf and Sinaloa drug cartels, whose bloody 3-year-long war has left thousands dead, be in peace negotiations?
Law enforcement officials on both sides of the border say Mexico’s largest cartels have discussed a truce, and violence - though still high - has decreased over the last month.
Drug killings have included decapitations, menacing letters attached to dead bodies and dozens of dead cops. But executions have slowed in recent weeks, averaging about 40 a week, according to Mexican media estimates. That’s down from as many as 95 a week earlier in the year.
Biker Mayor Rides Again
It’s the first Monday of the month, so that means Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard is biking to work.
In an oft-ridiculed directive, meant to stimulate bicycle riding and cut emissions in the smog-choked megalopolis, Ebrard has ordered government functionaries to bike to work once a month.
Providing an example to his troops, Ebrard dons his helmet, jumps on his mountain bike and pedals to the office. It’s always a big media event, accompanied by much snickering in the Mexican press. Here’s the photo Ebrard’s photographer e-mailed the media about an hour ago.
While Ebrard gets kudos for promoting environmentally friendly programs in one of the world’s most polluted cities, detractors say Mexico City is simply not fit for cycling. With 4 million cars slicing through traffic with an aggressiveness that would make a New Yorker cringe, the city’s streets are a scary place for anything with two wheels.
But Ebrard seems determined to change the city’s car culture.
He recently began pushing hybrid cars and has closed downtown streets on Sundays for big bikefests.
It’s a Really Bad Sign(ature)
A year ago, when I got my Mexican work permit, I never imagined my financial future hung in the balance. As I signed the work visa, I didn’t think twice. The passport-sized visa booklet is small, the signature line even smaller and I was slightly rushed as I hunched over it at the immigration office in Mexico City.
The result was a signature with only a slight resemblance to my normal John Hancock, the letters at the end of Schwartz strangely mangled and truncated. But who cared anyways?
Well, the Mexican banking system, that’s who.
A few months later I opened a Mexican bank account and was forced to fill out multiple signature cards. But the signatures had to match the work visa signature EXACTLY.
A New Genre in Mexico: Election Thriller
As the anniversary of last year’s contested presidential election approaches (it’s Monday for those keeping track), Mexico is being bombarded with a slew of books chronicling that fateful day.
At least half a dozen books have been published about the election, most timed to come out around the anniversary. None has been more eagerly anticipated than Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s colorfully titled “The Mafia Stole the Presidency from Us.”
Critics have complained it’s light on new details and surprising insights, but the book does provide some interesting moments: Lopez Obrador claims the vice president of the Televisa network called him at 5 p.m. on election day to tell him he had won (more evidence, he says, that the results were later falsified); he also defends his decision to seize Reforma avenue for much of the summer (experts say that action helped turn public opinion against him) saying he did it to prevent an outbreak of violence.
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Mexico Reacts: Senate Shows Hypocrisy on Immigration
The demise of the Senate immigration reform bill was met with anger, but certainly not surprise, in Mexico, where much of the blame is being laid at the feet of President Bush. Newspaper editorials this morning marveled over Bush’s inability to rally his fellow Republicans to his cause.
The bill’s failure “accents the weakness of his presidency,” writes the left-leaning La Jornada newspaper, going on to say that Bush has “consumed all of his political capital on his absurd and criminal ‘war on terrorism.’”
El Universal accuses the United States of hypocrisy when it comes to immigration, saying “It’s obvious the politicians in that country want workers, but they’re not willing to create a legal framework for them.”
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I’m a retired BP Agent and don’t see the concern here. We “printed” and photographed most illegals that we apprehended. Why shouldn’t Mexico do the same? I do, however, see the rest of the hypocrisy in what the Mexican government
... read the full comment by Jhf | Comment on Immigration advocates: Mexico "criminalizing" Central Americans Read Immigration advocates: Mexico "criminalizing" Central Americans
I say run the rascal out off town, one thing for sure he has dug his own grave for any future political race…I know its sad, but I can’t stop laughing. It sound like an Italian comedy in one of those silent movies HaH!
... read the full comment by frank carter | Comment on The "race" issue: A marathon of troubles for Madrazo Read The "race" issue: A marathon of troubles for Madrazo
Read this article…California Democrat Senator Barbara Boxer has attached an amendment to a spending bill that will block federal immigration enforcement until after the 2010 census.
... read the full comment by John | Comment on Immigration advocates: Mexico "criminalizing" Central Americans Read Immigration advocates: Mexico "criminalizing" Central Americans
Just shows the total hypocrisy of Calderon. America should open it’s borders and welcome every illegal that sneaks into the US, but his government can protect it’s borders.
Just another two faced hypocritcal politician!!
... read the full comment by LadyM | Comment on Immigration advocates: Mexico "criminalizing" Central Americans Read Immigration advocates: Mexico "criminalizing" Central Americans
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