MEXICO CITY BRIEFING May 2005
News this month
Open to attack
Mexico's Congress voted to strip Andrés Manuel López Obrador of the immunity from prosecution he holds as city mayor, leaving him vulnerable to charges stemming from a city-land deal. On April 20th, federal prosecutors sent their case to a judge, but then defied expectations by saying that the popular left-wing mayor would not be arrested and sent to jail. By keeping him out of prison, Mexico's president, Vicente Fox, is working to ensure that Mr López Obrador can't play up his role as a political martyr. (The mayor has already compared himself to such persecuted luminaries as Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.)
Mr López Obrador and his supporters insist that the contempt-of-court charge, which is now four years old, is simply an effort by opposing parties to get him out of next year's presidential race, in which he is favoured. At issue is a 100-yard access road to a hospital, which Mr López Obrador began in 2001 despite a judge's ruling that work had to stop, since the road crossed private land. Under Mexican law, the mayor cannot run for office or be put on the ballot until his trial is over, which could take more than a year. He at least has popular support at his back: one poll showed that 60% of residents disagreed with the stripping of his immunity, and 150,000 showed up on April 7th in a rally in the Zocalo, the city's main square. He has promised a lengthy campaign of “civil disobedience”.
Learning the signs
City justice officials are being trained to detect signs of torture, so that they can ferret out prisoner abuse. The training session was opened by the UN's High Commissioner for Human Rights, and was attended by 75 police, detectives and human-rights officers from the Federal District's justice department. The course is based on the UN's Istanbul Protocol, which includes detailed diagrams that classify the injuries caused by torture.
A total of 79 accusations of torture were presented to the capital's Human Rights Commission last year. None of these cases have so far been ruled to be torture, but the presence of top city officials at the training session seems to underscore the importance of the issue.
Stop the presses
Corruption and drug trafficking remains a dangerous beat for investigative journalists in Mexico. In the last month, a number of attacks on journalists have resulted in two murders and one disappearance. The most recent victim was Raúl Gibb Guerrero, an award-winning newspaper editor who ran La Opinion in the town of Poza Rica. Guerrero was shot to death shortly after his newspaper published an investigative report exposing local drug and petroleum smuggling. In a similar case, Guadalupe García Escamilla, a journalist covering corruption in local government, died from multiple gun-shot wounds after surviving in critical condition for ten days. Another reporter, Alfredo Jimenez Mota, disappeared while on the way to an interview and is feared dead.
José Luis Santiago Vasconcelos, Mexico's Deputy Attorney General, said that the attacks appeared to be an effort by organised crime to silence the media so that “no-one knows anything”. Indeed, the attacks reinforce the fear that organised crime is getting out of hand in Mexican states, and that the freedom of information introduced after President Vicente Fox came to power has increased the danger for journalists, some of whom have started censoring themselves for fear of their lives. Although Mr Fox has pledged the full assistance of federal authorities in the investigations, many doubt whether it will change matters, as many previous cases have gone unresolved. The Inter American Press Association counts 34 Mexican journalists who have been killed since 1993.
Seeing again
Traffic police, an underpaid lot, have little money to spend remedying their myopia. Many stumble through some of the world's most dangerous streets in a fog. So a local charity has begun giving them glasses, for which there seems to be great need. One officer admitted that it had been three years since he could read a number plate from four metres away (let alone the small print of a tax disc). More alarmingly, another admitted he has had trouble driving his patrol car for the last six years, thanks to poor eyesight brought on by diabetes.
The “Receive the Gift of Sight” programme, funded by the Lions' Club, the Lens Crafters Foundation and Delegación Venustiano Carranza, has given 400 pairs of glasses to city police. But who will compensate motorists for all the extra tickets these eagle-eyed law-enforcers are soon to dish out?
Catch if you can
May 2005
Gaudí: Artista de siempre
February 17th-July 9th 2005
Antonio Gaudí, a Catalan architect, is responsible for the characteristic look of Barcelona. His modernist buildings defied convention, taking on organic (and even cartoonish) shapes of wavy lines and vibrant colours. In 1936, during the Spanish Civil War, 611 of his original plans and drawings in the Sagrada Familia Archive were destroyed in a fire; only 51 survived, and they are on view in this exhibition (the title translates as “Artist for all time”).
To bring the documents to life, the curators have built a little Potemkin Barcelona in the colonial grandeur of San Ildefonso. An immense photo of the facade of the La Sagrada Familia cathedral—one-fifth of the cathedral's actual size—dominates the space. Other reproductions include one of the Moorish helmeted chimneys from La Pedrera, as well as mosaics, doorways, furniture, photographs and maquettes. And a visit to this former college, which is covered in dramatic works by the greatest Mexican muralists, is always worthwhile.
Antiguo Colegio de San Indefonso, Justo Sierra 16, centre. Tel: +52 (55) 5702-3783. Open: Tues-Sun, 10am-5.30pm.
More from the Mexico City cultural calendar
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