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

News this month

Beaten with a sugar cane

More than 10,000 sugar-cane workers descended on Mexico City in late July to protest against President Vicente Fox's plans to veto legislation which would have reinstated 30-year-old price controls on sugar cane. Mexico's former regime fixed the price that mill owners had to pay for sugar cane—putting Mexico's sugar industry at a disadvantage (making it about three times as expensive as Brazilian, for example).

The workers blockaded the ministry of agriculture and paralysed the city centre for several days, clogging up major traffic arteries. Mr Fox eventually agreed to negotiate with the unions, a move that industry leaders fear may lead to the president caving into demands. Some of Mexico's business leaders claim that price-fixing benefits union leaders more than it does the impoverished cane labourers, as the unions extract most of the money that mill owners pay to workers in the form of dues and set-asides.

New beginnings

One of the more salutary elements of Mexican electoral law is that current office-holders cannot run for office. This leads to a rash of resignations in the lead-up to major elections. Among this year’s crop is Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who resigned his position as mayor of Mexico City in July in order to stand for president in next summer’s election. The interim mayor, Alejandro Encinas, has quickly accomplished something that the former mayor could not do—get along with the president.

The interim mayor’s first meeting with Mr Fox was used to celebrate a joint local-federal social security programme for the city’s poor. The programme was in fact agreed upon last May by Mr Fox and Mr López Obrador, but their frosty relationship precluded them from publicly inaugurating it.

A smoother journey?

Despite the fact that he is not a candidate in next year’s mayoral elections, Mr Encinas has been busy making public appearances around the city. On August 7th he congratulated 250 taxi drivers on their new cabs in the Zocalo, Mexico City's enormous central square. The new cars are part of a government programme aimed at cleaning up the taxi-cab fleet by replacing old vehicles and registering drivers. Representatives of the 106,000 licensed taxi operators in the city say there are 80,000 pirate taxis making the rounds. The city claims it has already impounded more than 23,000 illegal taxis.

The programme has a side-benefit for passengers: the new, government-subsidised cabs have four doors, as opposed to the prevalent two-door models. According to the ministry of transport, 49,000 new cabs have been purchased over the last three years, a claim that is not supported by an informal glance at the city’s streets, in which the old two-door models seem to easily outnumber their more commodious counterparts.

Corn laws

There was both good and bad news for Mexico's corn growers recently. Not many cheered when the World Trade Organisation (WTO) ruled against a 20% tax that the Mexican government has been imposing on imported high-fructose corn syrup. The government is planning to appeal, but the ruling could re-open Mexico to foreign—mainly American—corn syrup. The syrup, used mainly as a sweetener in soft drinks, is substantially cheaper than sugar—so the ruling may also affect the protesting sugar-cane workers.

But better news followed in early August, when a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a leading scientific journal, found that, contrary to earlier studies, genetically modified corn has not mixed its genes with native crops. Maize, as important to the Mexican self-image as it is to the national diet, seems safe for now, even if maize growers seem less so.

Downpour

Mexico City’s position over 2,000 metres above sea level makes it much colder in summer than many more northerly climes. But the residents complain not about the cold but about the rain, which typically lasts from May to October. The rainy season came late this year, arriving with particular force in early August, when it flooded the Mexico City-Puebla highway (one of the city’s main exit routes) and several neighbourhoods south of the capital. Residents of the poorer neighbourhoods blame the authorities as much as the weather—poor drainage means that the floods are an annual fact of life.

Catch if you can

August 2005

Payment in kind

Until October 30th 2005

Since 1975, the Mexican government has given artists the option of paying their taxes by donating works of art to the state. To benefit those who pay taxes the traditional way, the Mexican treasury has decided to place a selection of these duties on display. Luis Filcer’s “Artist painting a lady”, a painting from 2001, seems straight from a François Truffaut film: he depicts a red bar where the clientele’s hats range from sinister to quizzical, and the barmaid is the best sort of courtesan. An untitled 2004 collage by Roberto Cortázar embodies the agony of popular culture, while “Black Light”, a street scene by “Trini”, has shadows as lonely as the night. The sculptures disappoint, but each painting is better than the next.

Museum of the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit, Old Palace of the Archbishop. Tel: (+52) 55 9158-1243. Open: Tues-Sun 10am-5.30pm. Admission 8 pesos.

More from the Mexico City cultural calendar