MEXICO CITY BRIEFING March 2005

News this month

Even from jail

The city is covered with banners supporting the campaign to preserve Andrés Manuel López Obrador's immunity from prosecution. The city's popular left-wing mayor is charged with building a road to a city hospital across private property, despite a court order against it. This minor legal transgression may knock him out of contention for the presidential election in 2006. But Mr López Obrador says he will petition to run anyway, even from jail.

But that probably won't be necessary. Around 80% of voters are opposed to attempts to strip him of his immunity from prosecution, viewing such efforts as politically motivated. Most seem to regard Mr López Obrador's alleged offences as paltry compared with what the former ruling party, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) got away with in the past. He remains the most popular candidate in the presidential race. Critics say removing him on these grounds would undermine the democratic credibility of the eventual winner.

Fending for themselves?

As evidence of his austere resolve, the mayor has announced that armed escorts will no longer be provided for anyone in his government except the Procurator General and the head of public security. “No one else should have bodyguards or protection,” Mr López Obrador has declared. “Not even me.”

The move is causing some consternation in Mexico City, where bodyguards are de rigueur for even the most minor officials. Indeed, it seems the mayor did not even check with his own people, as the two men he singled out for protection do not agree with him. Joel Ortega, head of the Ministry for Public Security, says none of his top staff are going to lose their armed escorts, and the Procurator General agrees. Half of the Justice Department’s elite police corps are engaged in bodyguard duties for various functionaries. They’ll just have to give them up, says the mayor. But what about Mr López Obrador’s select guard of young policewomen? “They are just there to help out during demonstrations,” he assured reporters. “They’re not with me all the time.”

A massive operation

Threatened by the imminent demolition of Mexico City’s Chrysler plant, the building it adorns, the huge mural “Velocidad” (Speed) by David Siqueiros is moving. It took a hundred workers to heave the 4x10-metre, 25-tonne mural, and oversee its relocation to the Plaza Juárez, in the city centre. It had been on the side of the Chrysler plant for 50 years.

The seven-hour operation began in the dead of night, in order not to interfere with traffic. But a convoy of 50 police cars, motorcycles and trucks accompanying the artwork created gridlock anyway. Leading the phalanx was a team of tree surgeons, who sawed off branches for the six-metre-tall trailer to pass. More technicians raced alongside, removing obstacles that blocked the way, including traffic lights, telephone cables and road signs. “Velocidad” never made it above a stately 10km per hour.

Unstoppable

The city's much-vaunted new express buses plying the Avenida Insurgentes, one of the capital's main highways, are causing chaos. To ensure the speedy travel of these buses, which run along the avenue’s outside lane, all other vehicles are barred from cutting across their path. What this means, starting in March, is absolutely no left turns off one of the city’s major thoroughfares.

This is not going down well with Chilangos (Mexico City natives), who are not known for road etiquette at the best of times. They are now taking their rage and frustration out on hapless traffic cops. At sections of the road where drivers once made left turns, there is now a cacophony of insults and obscene hand gestures. Despite police cars blocking the way, many drivers are still trying to force through anyway. After one officer was momentarily distracted from his post by a fender-bender, dozens of cars immediately sprinted left.

Ringtones everywhere

There is no escape: mobile-phone users in Mexico City can now keep chatting even on the metro, thanks to underground antennae now being installed by Telcel, a local mobile-phone operator. So far, the system only works in some ten city-centre stations, but the plan is to have all 106 metro stops included by the end of June.

This will put Mexico ahead of many European cities, where no underground networks are yet in place. The system works best for GSM phones (simpler models pick up lines less reliably). The expansion should mean more money for Carlos Slim, owner of Telcel, who was recently declared the world's fourth-richest man by Forbes magazine. But the city will benefit too, as Telcel will pay around $2.4m per year to rent space for the antennae.

Catch if you can

April 2005

The myth of the two volcanoes: Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl

Until June 19th 2005

Even if you can’t see them for the smog, the two great volcanoes that rise above Mexico City loom large in local consciousness. Popocatépetl, the Smoking Mountain, and Iztaccíhuatl, the Sleeping Woman, have been towering symbols of the male-female relationship since prehispanic times, sources of myth, magic and divinity.

This show at the Bellas Artes museum celebrates these two grand peaks with a selection of pre-Columbian pieces, modern literary references, paintings and sculptures. It also affords a nostalgic look at the beauty of the landscape around the Valley of Mexico before it was shrouded in a tobacco-coloured haze.

Museo de Palacio de Bellas Artes, Av Juárez and Eje Central, centre. Open Tue-Sun 10am-6pm. Tel: +52 (55) 5512 1410 x 245. See the museum's website.

More from the Mexico City cultural calendar