Economist.com Cities Guide: Mexico City Briefing - August 2006

News this month

Obrador, where art thou?

Supporters of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the presidential candidate of the centre-left Party of the Democratic Revolution and Mexico City’s former mayor, have taken to the streets for the third time in a month. Mr López Obrador trailed Felipe Calderón, the candidate of the National Action Party by 244,000 votes (0.53%) after July 2nd’s election and has been protesting since. But unlike earlier marches, the one held on July 30th was only a prelude to an occupation of the Zócalo, the city’s central square, and a few miles of Reforma, one of the main boulevards.

The closing of Reforma has paralysed traffic in the city: even though the protesters are sparsely camped, the police (whose leadership supports Mr López Obrador) have blocked off the avenue. Local businessmen have reported substantial drops in customers, and speculation is rampant as to whether the move will backfire for the former mayor. Mr López Obrador has announced that he will live in the Zócalo until a special court that is reviewing the election results orders a full recount. On August 6th the court announced that it would not order such a recount, and that only 9% of polling places would be recounted, so Mr López Obrador has vowed to continue his resistance. Mr Calderón has so far refrained from confronting his opponent openly, and is still most likely to become Mexico’s next president, even as all the news centres on the underdog.

Police headache

Over one tonne of pseudoephedrine was stolen from a pharmaceutical lab in Coyoacan, in the southern part of Mexico City, on July 24th. Pseudoephedrine, a common decongestant, is also used in the making of methamphetamines, and the stolen drug is thought to have a black-market value of around 57m pesos ($5.16m). Three security guards and one policeman were bound, gagged and then shot dead during the raid, and another policeman was critically injured. Prosecutors believe the owner of the laboratories, Fernando Jiménez Lugo, who has been missing since early June, helped the thieves get access to the facility.

Although this is Mexico's biggest robbery in recent memory, it is but a symptom of the migration of the manufacture of methamphetamines from America to Mexico—probably not the kind of outsourcing that the signers of the North American Free Trade Agreement had in mind.

Cutting congestion

A new 270-metre-long bridge connecting Benito Juarez airport to the nearby Circuito Interior, one of the city’s main expressways, opened on July 20th. The bridge is part of an extensive renovation that should increase the airport's capacity substantially. Work on the existing terminal is almost complete, and a second terminal is scheduled to open by mid-2007.
Congestion around the airport can still be severe, but has lessened dramatically with the opening of the new bridge, which removes the need for cars and taxis to take turns entering the airport. The modernisation project will make Benito Juarez the first Latin American airport capable of receiving the new Airbus A380, the world’s biggest passenger aircraft.

Lake Wobegon no more

The refurbishing of Chapultepec, Mexico City’s central park, continued as authorities began the process of reflooding and restocking its biggest lake. The draining project had been budgeted at 10m pesos ($900,000), but this will rise by 50% because the lake was deeper than expected, so refilling is taking longer.

As the lake fills, its ducks, turtles and fish are being returned. The new water is purified, although it will not be drinkable and swimming will not be permitted. Authorities are striving to keep it from being overwhelmed by algae, as it was before. The lake is scheduled to reopen to the public on August 17th.

Hold your tongue

The borough of Milpa Alta in the city’s south-east held a three-day festival in mid-July to celebrate the Náhuatl language. With an estimated 2.5m speakers, Náhuatl is one of the most widely used indigenous languages in Mexico. Nonetheless, Octavio Retana Olivos, of the Náhuatl academy of language and culture, said at the festival that the language was at risk of disappearing.

Milpa Alta is home to Mexico City’s largest concentration of Náhuatl-speakers, numbering a few thousand, and offers weekend classes in Náhuatl. Among proposals made at the festival to strengthen the language was the establishment of a school where the teaching would be in Náhuatl, though it is still evolving as a written language and has not been standardised. Attendees at the festival also proposed an annual congress bringing together Náhuatl-speakers from around the country to agree on a course of action for preserving the language.

Catch if you can

August 2006

Nudes, 1926-32: Photographs by Luís Márquez Romay

Until August 26th 2006
Seek out this lovely exhibition of 30 black-and-white photographs, tucked away in a corner of Mexico’s national art museum. Luís Márquez Romay is a stalwart of modern Mexican photography (he died in 1978), perhaps best known for his work with Luis Buñuel on “Los Olvidados”, a film released in 1950 about poor children in Mexico City. This is a rare exhibition of his nudes.

The photographs evoke mythology tinged with 19th-century romanticism. Each image makes the human form the centre of the composition, while the background is lush with water, greenery and shadow. “Academia III” from 1929 captures a crouched man, who evokes a darker and more depressed version of Rodin’s “Thinker”.

National Museum of Art, Tacuba 8. Centro Histórico. Open: Tues-Sun 10am-6pm. Tel: +52 (0)55 5130-3460. Admission: 30 pesos (free Sun).

More from the Mexico City cultural calendar