Oaxaca update (with an update)
My topes (moles) in Oaxaca have mixed feelings about Nancy Davis. They generally feel she’s a good reporter, though her political biases shine through even in straight news stories (well, so do mine). And, I tend to take the Oaxaca Study Action Group as a bit flaky, but this “Update Oaxaca” doesn’t seem to suggest any particular slant on the news. If there are specific points one wants to argue with, I’ll be happy to insert updates to the “Update” over the next week.
2007-11-14 update
It’s been awhile since I wrote an update – I am not among the discouraged. But the environment is not happy, regardless of all the tourist events thrown out, to mainly Oaxacan audiences.
First of all, the state is in economic straits. My dentist said to me (perfectly seriously) that with narco money pulled out of circulation, there’s much less cash going around to buy things. Tourism remains low, waiting for Days of the Dead which may be its last gasp. Frankly, Oaxaca has undergone so many shitty renovations I don’t find the zocalo all that attractive any more, except for the lovely out-door climate. Other places which were once a pleasant rendezvous spot, like Pochote organic market, have gained a bad name because of the presence of two dominant women who abuse the indigenous vendors while claiming Toledo said this or that. I don’t go there any more.
The established commercial store keepers are planning to complain to UNESCO regarding destruction of the cultural patrimony. Further street renovations are underway. The commercial people complain about the police presence guarding the digging, and I suppose waiting for the next march.As the commercial people reported, “it’s intimidating”. No shit.
It’s interesting that Ruiz’ supporters, the commercial sector and Section 59 of the teachers (created by him to break Section 22), have now turned against him.
The election “success” depends on who you ask. What kind of turnout would have indicated a PRI win, as opposed to a PRI default?
Today Oct 14 is another march in anniversary commemoration of another murdered APPO person. The woman standing next to the sand tapete being created on the Alameda in front of the cathedral said, “It’s better to die fighting than on your knees”. That unsolicited remark kind of threw me –I asked her what she meant and she said fighting in a revolution was better than accepting repression. She didn’t say past or future, just that she admired the dead man, and thought he died honorably.
Today we also read in Las Noticias that there has been another attack on news providers: Jornada, Noticias and Proceso, by about forty pipe and machete armed members of the group Union General Obrera Campesina y Popular (UGOCP). The attack was in the Cuenca de Papaloapan. I have been told the group is a PRI controlled entity, which makes sense in the light of who they attacked. Attacks on reporters this week also included government-friendly Imparcial, that was an attack by narco-traffickers. The narco-traffickers are killing federal and state police in Oaxaca. While we are not fond of cops, this is a bad sign, as my dentist says.
I myself feel the state is less governable than before the APPO went into low profile. Somehow the usual social norms seem to have slipped –crime is worse, traffic accidents are worse, shootings reflect battles between local political factions in several towns, and also between the federal gov and the mafia. People are poorer, and many are desperate and leaving the city.
Lest you think all is bad, I was very encouraged by the vigor of indigenous peoples struggling on the Isthmus, and of course this week is the international indigenous conference in Sonora.
The APPO lives, we just don’t know exactly where…
Those merry pranksters of the “Right-wing, fascist, co-opted, capitalist, reactionary trolls” variety at Surreal Oaxaca have a very good parody posted.
A whiter shade of pale…
Pink Lady (inthepinktexas.com) couldn’t let this one pass. I present it as evidence that it’s not us West Texas fronterizados who are necessarily bigots and fools (it’s just that our crappy local newspaper is edited by folks from Odessa who don’t know how to read Spanish or check facts.
Those folks down in Farmers Branch sure do come up with the darndest ways to get rid of Mexicans. Now they’re targeting colored houses. This reminds me of the blatant discrimination my family encountered after my father decided to paint our shutters neon blue. They had been an acceptable sky blue prior to his sixth martini.
…So I feel the pain of the colored houses in Farmers Branch, and the unfair treatment that they have received. Take resident Robin Bernier, who has petitioned the City Council to require permits and color approval before people paint their houses. “When you paint your house some fluorescent or garish color scheme, you negatively affect my [home] value,” Bernier said. Uh, you live in Farmers Branch. How much lower could your home value go?
According to business owner and colored home supporter Elizabeth Villafranca, this is just another jab at Hispanics in this once quiet little town. “We know who has the bright colors,” she said. “Latin Americans.”
Tom Bohmier lives near a house with an offensive bright blue garage. He said he didn’t want his neighbors “for whatever reason, mental incompetence or poor judgment, to paint their house electric something.” You see? If everyone lived in a nice white trailer like Mr. Bohmier, we wouldn’t have these problems.
The president of the Code Enforcement Association of Texas, Neely Blackman, said that house color doesn’t make a difference in property values. “Now neighbors make a difference,” he said, citing issues such as Hispanics.
Quote of the day
“It is an absurd idea, and given that it’s so absurd, it may just be successful.”
Carlos Monsivias on opening Taco Bell Restaurants in Mexico.
Since whatever those weird things that look like napkin holders full of hamburger that Taco Bell calls “tacos” in the U.S. are assuredly NOT tacos… they’re called “Tacostadas” in Mexico. Which kind of defeats the purpose of the restaurant’s name.
Less than meets the eye
A heck of a lot more startling than the story about some psycho poet from Colonia Guerrero is the headline from “CNNMoney.com“:
Mexico’s Pemex Seeks New Cooperation Deals With Exxon, Total
All this cooperation deal involves is executive and technical TRAINING, though ” Industry observers say that foreign oil majors are keen to sign cooperation agreements as a way to market their technologies to Pemex, hoping Mexico will eventually open its oil industry to joint-venture projects.”
While I suppose Exxon might “brainwash” some execs, they’d be more likely to jump ship to one of the private companies (all smaller than Pemex — really! PEMEX is the world’s 15th largest oil company. BP, the world’s largest private oil company is #17. ExxonMobile is only #20), there’s no reason to think Pemex, or any of its subsidiaries are for sale. If they were, I’d expect Petrobras or the Petroleos de Venezuela would be more likely investors than ExxonMobile.
As it is, private oil and energy companies — Shell, BP, Repisol, aleardy provide contract services to PEMEX, so this sounds more like CNN’s usual wishful thinking than anything serious.
Starving poet?
Police sent to the home of Jose Luis Calva say they discovered a woman’s torso in a cupboard, leg in the fridge and bones in a cereal carton.
They are also reported to have discovered the draft of an unfinished novel, titled Cannibal Instincts.
Mr Calva is now also being investigated in connection with the disappearances of an ex-girlfriend and a prostitute.
Police were called to Mr Calva’s apartment in central Mexico City on Monday after neighbours reported a bad smell.
There they discovered the remains of his girlfriend, Alejandro Galeano, a 30-year-old pharmacy worker and mother of two. She had been reported missing by her family on Friday.
Police are said to be investigating whether chunks of meat found in a frying pan in the apartment are human.
Calva was injured as he tried to escape and is now in hospital.
He has told police he is an aspiring horror writer and poet.
The British seem to be on a cannibalism kick (maybe they’ve finally learned to cook). I guess the best that can be said was that Sr. Calva was way, way into his art (or… maybe his art was into him).
Where’d they go?
This photo, from this morning’s Jornada, shows something I’ve never seen before … the Centro Historico without ambulantes. Where’d they go?
I’ve always had mixed feelings about the ambulantes. On the one hand, there is something charming (or convenient) about being able to buy anything from pirate CDs to oranges to key rings to watches to … well you get the idea … without having to really go shopping. And, the mere presense (or, maybe “overwhelming presence”) of these informal sales booths belied the notion that Mexicans have no entrepreneural bent.
It was a fascinating spectacle. On-and-off toleration meant on-and-off raids. I was amazed one day, during a raid (announced, by friendly citizens by whistling in the streets — meaning, “cheeze it, the cops” to see an entire sunglass “store” (or, rather, elaborate display stand, with mirrors to check out the purchases) disappear into a suitcase, and the entire sales staff nonchalantly saunter off towards the Metro. Being a gringo (and, as someone once wrote “an anarchist… out of the mainstream”) spent some quality time (and a few pesos) having coffee with a very nice young Tzotzl lady whose collection of plastic junk and baseball caps) was under my feet at the McDonald’s she’d just run in. The coppers gave me the look of death, but not a damn thing they could do about it.
I once entertained both the ambulante and myself (and I suspect quite a few passers by) when I bought a pirate CD of “Los Rolling Stones” and the guy offered to test it out on his portable CD player (run off a diablito — a quite illegal, but quite open, tap into the local power pole). It was Sunday morning, and Mass at the Cathedral was just letting out. The Cardinal was standing in the doorway. What a great time to blast out Sympathy for the Devil!
But being slightly anti-social was only one of the delights of the most bizarre bazaar in Mexico. The ten-peso watch I bought four years ago was still keeping (almost perfect) time until just a few weeks ago, so there were some genuine bargains on the streets.
But, it was overwhelming, and I can understand the argument made by “regularly housed” merchants that the guys on the streets were muscling in on their territory. Mexico City shopping has always followed the peculiar idea that merchants selling the same products should be in the same location. Sort of a city-wide Walmart. Funerals on calle Miguel Schultz, Wedding Dresses on calle Cuba, cameras and copiers on Tacuba, shoes on Puente d’Alvarado, and so on. If you lived there, it sort of made sense.
But, with shoes not just “off the rack” but off the sidewalk as well, where do you think people would shop? When the new computer markets opened on Eje Central and calle Uruguay, it was only a matter of months (maybe weeks) before pirate (or, at least deep — dubious –discount) software stalls sprawled across the sidewalks… followed by guys selling CDs, watches (my friend and neighbor Carlos, after being robbed following a day selling tacos al canasta, took up a job selling cheap watches on Eje Central — he sold me a fine, cheap plastic watch), batteries, porn and … well, almost anything kinda sorta related to the computer industry.
Tepito and Laguinallas, on the edge of the Centro Historico, have — for centuries — been the place to buy stuff — everything that doesn’t fit into a neat category (or does, but can’t be found anywhere else. A friend once say used coffins for sale in Tepito), or does, but somehow you always bought in connection with something unrelated. Cheap underware, disposable razors and a two-burner parrile (table-top cooking range) were one Saturday’s purchase.
It’s only natural that the street action spilled over into the Centro. And, with a whole neighborhood already devoted to “stuff”, it was a bit of overkill. And, the ambulantes seemed to breed like rabbits. It was impossible to get down some of the main streets around the Zocalo without a megademonstration at your back. If even then (the truly brilliant entreprenuers mounted bicycles and sold to the demonstrators).
The ambulantes have been a “problem” — and, during the Lopez Obrador administration — a political liability. One PAN Jefe de Delegacion, attempted to clear them out, outfitting his local police in the latest riot gear, sending them in — to get the shit kicked out of them by mostly little old ladies. But, then PANistas tend to only favor “official” (i.e. “controlled”) capitalism and deserve to get their butts kicked. The PRD administration, attempting the remove the ambulantes (its not a good idea to get into confrontations with likely voters) has taken a typically Mexican approach. Buy them out.
The preliminary results, according to Jornada, are good (my translation):
México, DF. For the first time in more than ten years, the streets around the perimeter of the Capital’s Historic Center are free of fixed and semi-portable vendors’ kiosks, as well as the blankets, carts, tarps and other appertances of the thousands of ambulantes who previously filled the area.
This morning, the SSPDF (Mexico City Police Department) installed barricades around the Historical Zone, while at least 1200 officers and three Citizen Protection Units mounted patrols.
Primero Noticias, a morning television news program, broadcase images of Avenues Izazaga, Eje Central Lázaro Cárdenas, República de Perú, Apartado, Leona Vicario, Guatemala, Anillo de Circunvalación, Corregidora, Correo Mayor and República de Uruguay, which remained – among other streets – vendor free, traffic limited to vehicles and with pedestrians walking on the sidewalks for the first time in many years.
One Colonia Centro resident was heard to compare the view looking down from Eje Central Lázaro Cardenáa to early Sunday mornings. The northern limit of the Historical Center, the only lights to be seen were the revolving turret lights on dozens of Capital police units as officers guarded against the return of the more than fifteen thousand vendors removed from the street, according to a Notimex cable.
In several places, such as La Plaza del Estudiante, where ambulantes were relocated under a district program, dozens of vendors were guarding their “new space” against invaders.
The Mexican news agency also reported that tons of trash were left being in streets including Mixcalco, Del Carmen, Venezuela and Correo Mayor by departing informal merchants.
In a morning press conference, Secretary of Governance, José Angel Avila Pérez, announced that agreements between the Federal District and 66 organizations covered 98 percent of the ambulantes who had been operating within the zone, and who have been relocated to 20 thousand square meters in 36 different buildings.
Avila Pérez added that as of Friday, the different organizations will take posession of these remodeled facilities, as notaries attest that the streets have been cleared. According to a notice in Formato 21, vendors who attempt to work in the streets of the zone, or on the peremiter will be taken to court.
He added that the relocation program for informal vendors was a “irrevokable decision” taken by the District government, and their would “not tolerate, nor permit, distractions that interfered with use of the public space.”
Agreements to provide water and other services to the new facilities occupied by the informal merchants was only reached last month, and the Secretary admitted that services had yet to be installed in three building, adding that work would be finished by this weekend. Most rehabilitation on the new facilites was done by the ambulantes themselves.
Sin bandaras (o sesos)…
WTF? Sending death threats to Mexican ANIMALS?
TBOGG has the whole bizarre story:
The Mexican flag flies no more over the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum — and the U.S. flag is gone, too.
The museum’s board of trustees voted to remove the flags — which had flown side-by-side since 1954 — after receiving complaints and threats about flying the Mexican flag.
Questions from visitors about why the Mexican flag was being flown on U.S. soil escalated in the past couple of years, said board chairwoman Sophia Kaluzniacki.
An anonymous death threat against the museum’s animals made earlier this year by a phone caller also factored into the board’s decision, but to a lesser degree, she said. The desire to avoid controversy on border-related issues was the main thrust, she said.
Elvis Presley — Revolutionary Hero
Wow… I’ve actually had almost 24 hours to myself for a change. I’ve been trying to finish up Gods, Gachupines and Gringos, and have been typing away for the last few hours.
Hot off the computer (and not yet edited), this is the first draft of some background on what happened to Mexico — and the student movement — in 1968 after the 2 October Tlatelolco Massacre:
In 1958, UNAM students staged noisy street protests over a canceled showing of the new Elvis Presley film, Jailhouse Rock. It was a minor incident and quickly settled (the Party, and the theaters arranged for extra showings and student discount tickets), but it was the start of something bigger. Elvis’ role as the non-conformist, lower-class Vince Everett resonated with the students. Even the middle and upper class students recognized that, as heirs of the Revolution, and part of the Institutional Revolution, Ironically, because of the successes of the Institutional Revolution, the students had access to the wider world, and, as Mexicans, saw themselves as active participants in that world.
While Rock-n-roll would not be forbidden over the next twenty-five years, the government’s attitude was, at best, ambivalent. “People are strange,” as Jim Morrison of the Doors, sang. With radio stations unwilling to play the disturbingly new (and potentially revolutionary) music in the U.S., Mexican stations just across the border set up powerful transmitters that broadcast their signals as far north as Iowa and North Carolina. On the other hand, the PRI used the excuse that they were protecting Mexican culture to limit Mexican access to the new music.
Several Mexican rock and roll bands developed and listening to – or copying — foreign rock-n-roll was seen as somewhat more subversive than it really was – in the left-wing press, a reference to rock-n-roll indicated the writer’s anti-PRI attitude. The Beatles, who never appeared in Mexico, had a tremendous influence on literture and culture (one Mexican radio station played nothing but the Beatles, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year for over 20 years) and Jim Morrison’s lyrics would – by 2000 – be considered an essential part of world literary culture, and widely studied in universities.
Ray Manzarek and Robby Krieger of The Doors recently discussed their own band’s relevance to the Tlatelolco Massacre — and its aftermath — in Mexico City. Mark Stevenson wrote about it for the AP.
But first, Everybody, let’s rock!
The wit and dubious wisdom of Tom Tancredo
Down here, being a “rogue” isn’t such a bad thing:
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Which “single digit” should we give Tom –the middle one, perhaps? While I might agree about the need to relocate the great wall, I gotta admit to being a little confused. I thought conservatives in general — and Republicans in particular — were supposed to stick up for us yokels when we opposed federal mandates. Er… I guess “mandate” is the wrong word to use talking about Republicans these days: federal intrusions… uh… insertions… um… oh never mind!
The race is not to the swift
What’s the world coming to when a PRI politician can’t even get away with a dishonest victory? I get the feeling all the good crooks went to work for PAN.
MEXICO CITY (AP) — After a humiliating defeat in Mexico’s presidential election last year, Roberto Madrazo appeared to be back on top: He’d won the men’s age-55 category in the Sept. 30 Berlin marathon with a surprising time of 2:41:12.
But Madrazo couldn’t leave his reputation for shady dealings in the dust. Race officials said Monday they disqualified him for apparently taking a short cut — an electronic tracking chip indicates he skipped two checkpoints in the race and would have needed superhuman speed to achieve his win.
According to the chip, Madrazo took only 21 minutes to cover nine miles — faster than any human can run. “Not even the world record holder can go that fast,” race director Mark Milde said.
In a photograph taken as he crossed the finish line, Madrazo wears an ear-to-ear grin and pumps his arms in the air. But he also wore a wind breaker, hat and long, skintight running pants — too much clothing, some said, for a person who had just run 26.2 miles in 60-degree weather.
Madrazo’s outfit caught the attention of the New York-based marathon photographer Victor Sailer, who alerted race organizers that they might have a cheater on their hands.
“It was so obvious to me, if you look at everyone else that’s in the picture, everyone’s wearing T-shirts and shorts, and the guy’s got a jacket on and a hat or whatever,” Sailer said. “I looked at it and was like, wait a second.”
The world record for 15 kilometers — the distance Madrazo covered in 21 minutes — is 41 minutes 29 seconds, by Felix Limo of Kenya.
At a Mexico City taxi stand on Monday, drivers Octavio Elizalde Cerrillo and Roberto Valle Rivera poked fun at Madrazo’s troubles. They, like other Mexicans their age, lived under decades of uninterrupted rule by Madrazo’s Institutional Revolutionary Party, which often resorted to fraud to win elections, leaving many deeply distrustful of politicians.
“If he’s a cheat at one thing, he’ll cheat at anything,” said Valle Rivera, 44.
“If you’re going to steal, you’ll steal here, in the United States, in Europe, everywhere in the world,” Elizalde Cerrillo, 41, added with a smile.
Madrazo’s reputation at home was already tarnished. In 1996, Mexico’s attorney general confirmed reports that he had spent tens of millions of dollars more than the legal campaign spending limit in his winning 1994 bid for the Tabasco state governorship.
While under investigation on those charges, Madrazo told police he was kidnapped for seven hours, beaten and threatened with death by unidentified assailants. Police couldn’t find evidence of any such abduction, and many saw it as a sympathy ploy.
During the 2006 presidential campaign, opponents plastered walls with posters reading, “Do you believe Madrazo? I don’t either!”
In June, Madrazo completed the San Diego marathon with a time of 3:44:06 — more than an hour slower than his time in Berlin, Mexican newspaper Reforma reported. Madrazo’s office did not return phone calls from The Associated Press.
Race director Milde noted that Madrazo may have intended to drop out and taken a shortcut to reach the start-finish area.
“I don’t know if it was his intention or accidental: I try to believe in the good of people,” Milde said. But the fact that Madrazo appears to be celebrating in the photograph could go against this theory, he added.
Some 32,500 people finished the race and about 40 are disqualified every year, Milde said.
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Associated Press Writer David McHugh in Berlin contributed to this report.
Copyright 2007 Associated Press.
Columbus, Che and La Raza
I’m not sure why, but the 40th anniversary of Che Guevara’s murder, assasination, execution… death… passed unnoticed here in Alpine, Texas.
It’s been rumored for years that a local worthy is retired CIA (probably true), and that he was involved in whatever it was exactly that went down in La Higuera, Bolivia 9 October 1967. By legend, our small town civic leader chopped off Che’s hands and took them back in his flight bag to Washington.
Maybe, maybe not. Che certainly is dead, however. But, still relevant. I realize it’s easy to romanticize the guy (and there aren’t a lot of handsome revolutionaries to make tee shirts out of. Lenin and Mao never struck anyone as fashion icons) or to forget that he was — after all — a failure, but he still resonates today.
Che, like Simon Bolivar a hundred years earlier, and Hugo Chavez, Evo Morales, Rafael Correa — and to some extent, Mexico’s AMLO — all sought an intergrated Latin America. Whether it was done through military conquest (like Bolivar), revolution (like Che) or the ballot box and trade agreements (Chavez, Moreles, Correa, Lopez Obradór) the goal is the same: uniting the varied peoples of the Americas in one big happy Raza.
It’s we English speakers who miss the boat here. In English, “race” is a word used to separate us into small, competitive groups. In Spanish, “raza” is a uniting concept — a way of grouping peoples together.
It was a blunder, but the Italian sailor who brought us all together is also remembered this week. Edmundo, at ¡Para justicia y libertad! says things much better than I can:
Today, youth across the nation are told by our government that Christopher Columbus merits honor and celebration because it marks the arrival of Columbus to the Americas. Most nations of the Americas observe this holiday on October 12, but in the United States the annual observance takes place on the second Monday in October. It was Franklin Roosevelt who first suggested in 1934 that all states adopt October 12 as Columbus Day, later in 1971, under Richard Nixon; the second Monday of October officially became established as a federal holiday to honor the explorer.
The October 12th celebration is commonly known in many countries in Latin America as Día de la Raza, a holiday that is comparatively recent. Before I go on, it is important to address the meaning of “la raza” because I can already hear the complaints how the name of the holiday is just more proof raza means “race.” The Spanish the word raza carries the meaning of an extended community bound by cultural ties in addition to those carrying similar physical traits. During that time, the word raza was used in a cultural sense to reference the contended affinity between Spanish-speaking peoples on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. However, one must also be aware that during the early 20th century it was not surprising to find intellectuals employ racist theories because this was also the height of the eugenics movement.
The origin of Día de la Raza or Fiesta de la Raza goes back to the beginning of last century. In 1913, Faustino Rodriguez San Pedro, Chairman of Iberoamerican Union, proposed that 12th October be called Fiesta de la Raza and be celebrated throughout Spain and Latin America. Spain would later change the rename the holiday to Fiesta de la Hispanidad. In Costa Rica it is called Día de las Culturas and in the Bahamas it is called Discovery Day.
For better or worse, we’re all on the landmass. We should be one people, but that may be asking a bit too much…
Happy… whatever… day:
Cui bono? “Plan Mexico”
Laura Carlson looks at “Plan Mexico”
Both Mexican and U.S. officials have gone to great lengths to explain that the Mexican counter-narcotics plan will not be a repeat of the disgraced Plan Colombia. While ignoring the overall failure of that plan, they have emphasized that Plan Mexico will not include U.S. troops in Mexico. Concern in Mexico on this point has run so high that Minister of Foreign Relations Patricia Espinosa has repeatedly made public statements denying that U.S. troop presence forms part of the new package.
While it is unlikely that U.S. troops will be sent into Mexico due to political sensitivities, troop presence is a relatively minor part of the problem with the Plan Colombia model (recall that even Plan Colombia maintained a tight cap on direct military presence). Greater U.S. presence in Mexico will occur, at U.S. taxpayers’ expense and to Mexican citizens’ chagrin. DEA agents have already requested offices in two more Mexican cities and it is very unlikely that all the proposed training will take place in the United States.
But the real threat to Mexico lies in the fact that the plan proposes that the U.S. government be the funder and co-designer of a cornerstone of the nation’s national security strategy. Already it claims to be working with Mexico to build a central command to coordinate the work of internal agencies and facilitate binational coordination.
It’s no coincidence that the new plan concentrates on measures in Mexico, despite the obvious fact that the U.S. market drives the drug trade and illegal drugs couldn’t make it to the streets there unless organized crime and the complicity of government agents existed in the United States as well.
But it’s better business to attempt to remove the speck from your neighbor’s eye than the log from your own. Although Mexico’s drug problem is far more than a speck (the General Accounting Office recently reported that it accounts for as much as a $23 billion-dollar a year business), the new deal will offer up lucrative contracts to U.S. military and intelligence equipment firms, long-term maintenance and training contracts, and related services. In a recent Washington Post article, Misha Glenny cites a GAO report on Plan Colombia that finds that 70% of the money allotted never leaves the United States.
The billion-dollar drug deal may be a bonanza for Boeing, but the pay-off to the U.S. taxpayers who have to foot the bill is much less obvious.
mexfiles.net 
