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

News this month

Hu's on second

September saw not one, but two state visits by Asian leaders to Mexico. First came Roh Moo-hyun, president of South Korea, followed by Hu Jintao, president of China, both of whom came to discuss trade. There has been some friction between China and Mexico on the subject, with many Mexicans believing that cheap Chinese products will ultimately thrust their country into dire economic straits. Chinese exports to Mexico have increased by 50% over the last year, and Chinese goods now enjoy a higher share of the American import market than Mexican products.
Although Mr Hu and Vincente Fox, Mexico's president, signed a few minor agreements, they have not resolved the core issue: that China can manufacture most goods more cheaply than Mexico. Mr Hu was also reportedly scouting for commodity concessions, particularly on oil and iron.

Meanwhile, Mr Roh and Mr Fox agreed to start negotiations for a sort of free-trade-lite agreement, which would reduce some tariffs and eliminate others. Mr Roh also spent time visiting the city's substantial Korean population—30,000 Korean-Mexicans and 15,000 Korean residents. But his trip was also marked by an unexpected encounter with a North Korean diplomat, who was invited to a state dinner unbeknownst to Mr Roh, and who awkwardly approached him with an offer of friendship.

We can help too

In September, Mexican troops entered the United States for the first time in nearly 160 years. Driving 40 hours from Mexico City, roughly 200 soldiers went to San Antonio, Texas—the site of the Alamo—to help deal with refugees created by Hurricane Katrina. Mexico also sent a ship, the Papaloapan, to Biloxi, Mississippi, full of humanitarian supplies. The Mexican government estimates that some 145,000 Mexican nationals had been living in areas affected by the hurricane, many of them illegally.

A short-cut

Arriving at Mexico City's airport, one is struck not only by the long line at immigration, but by the number of Brazilians in it. For the past five years, Brazilians have not required a visa to enter Mexico, a policy that is set to change at the end of October. Part of the problem is that Brazilians have become one of the fastest-growing groups of illegal immigrants to the United States, with many arriving in Mexico on one-way tickets and then proceeding to the border. The number of Brazilians held at the Mexican-American border has climbed from a negligible level to roughly 30,000 a year since Mexico began allowing them to enter without visas.

Get sporty

Despite a steady influx of Brazilians, Mexico's football team still hasn't quite been measuring up. They did manage to defeat Panama (5-0 in a home game) to clinch a spot in next year's World Cup in Germany. But this followed on the heels of a loss in Ohio to the United States, which for the first time since 1934, became the first from the region—the North, Central American and Caribbean Zone—to qualify. (Three regional teams automatically qualify each time, but the Americans rarely achieve this first.)

The Mexican team has also been engulfed in controversy over its chain-smoking Argentine coach, Ricardo LaVolpe, who is well-liked by his players but not the media. His popularity problems haven't been helped by his foreigner status, nor by his public shouting match with a prominent Mexican coach (for the UNAM Pumas). But it now appears he will stay in the job, at least until his team heads to the big international tournament. A few players, including the team captain, threatened to quit if Mr LaVolpe was fired. The Mexico-United States rivalry is fairly heated, with the American team to blame for eliminating Mexico from the 2002 World Cup.

They've got a ticket to ride

Federal police were placed in an awkward position on September 7th, when they discovered over 130 animals on a bus at a checkpoint on the outskirts of Mexico City. All passengers disavowed knowledge of the critters. The animals, which were found in the luggage compartment, included an eagle, two toucans, three iguanas, 14 parrots, 15 snakes, 41 mockingbirds, 55 turtles and a tarantula. Noah's ark it isn't. And police are still unsure about what to do with their new menagerie.

Catch if you can

October 2005

Henry Moore and Mexico at the Museo Dolores Olmedo Patiño

Until October 9th 2005

By the time she died in 2002, Dolores Olmedo had been mistress to three Mexican presidents and Diego Rivera to boot. Her old villa in the south of town has been transformed into a museum to display her impressive array of paintings by Rivera. The collection has wonderful range: there is a delicate series that takes the cliché out of sunsets, and a triptych of New York that conveys the majesty of capitalism just as it indicts it. The villa is also graced with a large flock of beautiful peacocks.

For the next few weeks, the museum is also home to a number of sculptures and paintings by Henry Moore, a British modernist. Several of the sculptures are usefully juxtaposed with indigenous Mexican works, while paintings of the Blitz in London depict underground stations as catacombs.

Museo Dolores Olmedo Patiño, Avenida Mexico 5843, La Noria Xochimilco. Tel: (+52) 55-550891. Open: Tue-Sun 10am-6pm. Admission 25 pesos.

More from the Mexico City cultural calendar