Economist.com Cities Guide: Mexico City Briefing - May 2005

News this month

Three's company

The long prelude to Mexico's presidential election campaign is over. An estimated one million people marched to Mexico City's central square on April 24th in protest against the desafuero, a political effort to stop their leftist mayor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, from running in next year's presidential race. After the march, Vicente Fox, Mexico's president, met with the mayor and announced that his government would drop obscure contempt-of-court charges that would have barred Mr López Obrador from running for the presidency.

Mr López Obrador responded by formally declaring his candidacy for the top job. He will begin campaigning full-time in July, when he intends to step down as mayor. One of his rivals will be Santiago Creel, Mr Fox's interior minister, who also declared his candidacy in mid-May (Mr Fox is ineligible to run again). Roberto Madrazo, the head of the Institutional Revolutionary Party—which ruled Mexico for 71 years until Mr Fox’s victory in 2000—is expected to be a third candidate. Mr Madrazo defeated Mr López Obrador in the campaign for the governorship of the state of Tabasco in 1994, amid widespread allegations of fraud (one of the investigators was Mr Creel). He also ran against Mr López Obrador for the mayoralty of Mexico City in 2000, but lost. Both Mr Creel and Mr Madrazo supported the desafuero against Mr López Obrador.

Slipping into the shade

Ricardo Salinas Pliego, one of Mexico's wealthiest businessmen, is in trouble. In early May he announced plans to delist shares in three companies he controls: TV Azteca, the nation's second-biggest television station; Grupo Elektra, its biggest home-appliance retailer; and Grupo Iusacell, a mobile telephony company. Mr Salinas Pliego seems to be trying to avoid complying with America’s Sarbanes-Oxley Act, a corporate-governance measure introduced in 2002 in response to the Enron scandal. Already, America's Securities and Exchange Commission is suing him over a suspect debt deal.

Even if shareholders approve Mr Salinas Pliego's plan during emergency meetings scheduled for June 1st, all may not be smooth sailing. He was fined $2.3m at the end of April by Mexican regulators for securities violations, and criminal charges may also be on the way.

The petrol fairy

It has been an exciting couple of months for President Fox, who has proven himself powerful enough to meddle with markets and create firestorms across the border. In April, George Bush lamented high petrol prices in the United States, saying “I wish I could simply wave a magic wand and lower gas prices tomorrow; I'd do that.” Such magic didn’t seem so far-fetched to Mr Fox, who declared on May 16th that he would reduce the price of natural gas by 28%. Petrol at the pump, though, will remain the same price.

The gas-price reduction bred goodwill at home, but abroad the president came under fire for claiming that Mexicans working in America perform jobs that "not even blacks want to do." Crying racism, Jesse Jackson flew to Mexico in search of an apology. The American State Department called Mr Fox's comments "very insensitive and inappropriate". Mr Fox has since said he "very much regret[s] the misinterpretation". His original comment was in response to a tough new US immigration measure that requires immigrants to have proper papers before they can apply for a driver's licence.

The city has a clog

Fear of a catastrophic flood has led inspectors to descend 140m (460 feet) into Mexico City's main sewer for the first time in 13 years. The sewer tunnel, which is just 6.5 metres in diameter, carries the waste of 20m people away from the high plateau on which Mexico City sits. Part of the inspection was carried out by an unmanned launch, which searched for a blockage. None was found, but officials said that the walls of the tunnel, which was built in 1975, were decrepit.

Naked, baffling

Poor fieldworkers from the state of Veracruz arrived in Mexico City in late April, calling for land and welfare programmes. Several hundred men, dressed only in their underpants, lay face down in concentric circles on the grass surrounding the Angel of Independence, Mexico City's equivalent of the Arc de Triomphe. Many of them pulled down their pants. They were accompanied by a few dozen women, who walked up and down the Paseo de Reforma, Mexico's largest boulevard, without their tops, and in some cases, bottoms. The protestors, who have demonstrated annually since 2002, met with functionaries at Mexico's ministry of the interior, who promised to look into improving social conditions in Veracruz.

Catch if you can

June 2005

Pharaoh: The cult of the sun in ancient Egypt

Until June 20th 2005

Mexico is getting a rare treat with this exhibition of priceless Egyptian treasures from collections in Berlin and Munich. The show spans over 3,000 years of Egyptian history (3000BC to 30AD). It concentrates on the cult of the sun god Ra, the father of the Pharaohs, and integrates the most recent research. A bust of Tutankhamen and the sarcophagus of Anch-Hor showing the voyage of the dead to the underworld are among the many items on view. This marks the first time these pieces have ever left Germany, and is the result of a trade for the museum's fabulous Aztec exhibit that is still travelling the world.

Museo Nacional de Antropología, Chapultepec Park, Paseo de la Reforma, centre. Open: Tue-Sun 9am-7pm. Tel: +52 (55) 5553-6381. For more information, see the museum's website.

More from the Mexico City cultural calendar