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

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Mystery still surrounds the assassination in 1994 of Jose Francisco Ruiz Massieu, the then-leader of the Party of the Institutional Revolution (which ruled for 72 years until 2000). Though a farm worker was convicted of the murder, the mastermind behind it and the motivation for it remains unknown. Conspiracy theorists had fingered Raul Salinas, Ruiz Massieu's brother-in-law and the brother of then-president Carlos Salinas. Raul Salinas was convicted in 1999 (while Carlos fled the country for six years), but he was released on June 14th (after ten years in prison) when an appeals court judge ruled that his conviction was based on insufficient evidence.
The key witness, it turns out, was paid $500,000 by prosecutors for his testimony. Why Raul Salinas was framed remains murky. (The first prosecutor on the case, Ruiz Massieu's brother, was accused of accepting $7m in bribes and participating in a cover-up.)

But Raul Salinas is still under investigation over $100m in unexplained money sitting in a frozen Swiss bank account. He may also face extradition to France, where the money passed though on the way to Switzerland. This rap may prove harder to beat than the murder charges.

Your election, 2005

In preparation for July 3rd's state elections, the city is blanketed with billboards featuring a smiling, baby-faced young man, with the words: “Your Governor, 2005-2011”. Enrique Peña Nieto, a candidate for governor of the state of Mexico for the Party of the Institutional Revolution (PRI), ventures to make his prediction on buses, in taxis, athwart bridges and buildings, and just about anywhere glue will stick. (The state of Mexico includes a large part of Mexico City outside of the central Federal District, as well as surrounding areas.)

Arrogant, sure, but Mr Peña Nieto may be right: polls show him holding a decisive lead over his opponents from the ruling National Action Party, as well as the left-wing Party of the Democratic Revolution. Mr Peña Nieto's good looks are accompanied by a Clinton-esque charm—throngs of cheering women have become a campaign fixture. He makes his way to the podium by wading through crowds rather than emerging from backstage.

In bloom

Mexico City's Chapultepec Park reopened on June 12th after being closed for eight months for a $12m restoration. At twice the size of New York's Central Park, it may be the largest urban park in the Americas. (The new-world parks are topped by Paris, with its twin woods, the Bois de Boulogne and Vincennes.) It had long been overgrown and rubbish-strewn. The renovation, driven by Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Mexico City's mayor, found authorities dredging the park's lakes and thoroughly landscaping the trees and gardens. Most of the park is now open to the public, though a small part will remain under construction until 2007.

Controversially, the cosmetic surgery included throwing out hundreds of vendors who had studded the park's paths with their stalls. Strict police vigilance is keeping hawkers out, but it remains to be seen how long the commercial vacuum lasts in a city where every street-corner becomes an impromptu store when the traffic light turns red.

Death of a diplomat

Adolfo Aguilar Zinser, a Mexican intellectual and former ally of President Vicente Fox, was killed in a car accident on a road south of Mexico City on June 5th. He was one of Mr Fox's key advisors in the 2000 presidential campaign, helping him attract votes on the left, having been a member of the Green party and the left-wing Party of the Democratic Revolution before joining Mr Fox's campaign. Aguilar Zinser was reportedly disappointed when he was not appointed to the foreign ministry; instead, he was made the national security advisor, a relative backwater in the Mexican system, and then ambassador to the UN.

He had a memorable, if short, tenure at the UN. Among the flashpoints was a speech he gave in which he said the United States treat Mexico as its back yard. Perhaps proving his point, he was forced to resign following an American uproar over his comments. He was also a vocal opponent of the Iraq war. In his caustic resignation letter, he admitted (with no small amount of pride), “I am an undiplomatic diplomat.”

All aboard

Another of Mr López Obrador's projects to rejuvenate the city opened on June 19th: a modern bus system, which partially displaces the haphazard system of privately-run, rickety vans and buses along Insurgentes, the city's main north-south thoroughfare. Its construction closed part of Insurgentes at night for a week.

Other than the dedicated lanes, the new system aims to capitalise on another novelty: bus stops. Existing buses stop and pick up passengers wherever requested, slowing traffic. On June 19th, the new lanes were met with protests from about 300 private bus drivers put out of work by the new service. Meanwhile, there were grinding delays on the northbound side of the road. Designers hope that eventually the bus will cut transit time across the city from 1.5 hours to a single hour.

Catch if you can

July 2005

“Don Quixote” by Sotero Lemus

Until July 31st 2005

It takes a certain courage for a government to place a statue of that famous windmill-chaser in the middle of its most historic government building. To celebrate the 400th anniversary of Cervantes' novel, Sotero Lemus, a Mexican artist, has designed a large and elaborate sculpture, built with the help of hundreds of Mexican children. Don Quixote stands, or rather sits, 10.5-metres tall astride his nag, Rocinante. The work is a three-dimensional rendering, constructed as a skeletal wooden framework. In late June and early July, Mr Lemus's child-helpers will return to paper over and paint the frame; some fret that it will then look like a domineering piñata.

The Palacio Nacional, built by Hernan Cortés in 1521 on the grounds of an Aztec palace, now holds the Treasury ministry and other government offices. This robust incarnation of Don Quixote dominates the courtyard, the upper walls of which are covered by what is perhaps Diego Rivera's best-known work, a mural depicting the history of Mexico. After the sculpture is completed, he will be sent on tour around Mexico, to become a knight-errant as Cervantes imagined.

Palacio Nacional, Corregidora and Guatemala, Zocalo, Centro. Open: 10am-1pm. Tel (+52) 55 1253-9798 . See the project's website.

More from the Mexico City cultural calendar