Gay mayoral hope wants to reveal and repair rifts in city

Gay mayoral hope wants to reveal and repair rifts in city

BY DAVID AGREN
The News

GUADALAJARA - Nomination battles within the nation's small parties seldom generate much excitement. But Miguel Galán has defied that trend by vying for a spot on the mayoral ballot as an openly gay candidate in Guadalajara, Jalisco, one of the country's most conservative cities.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the 31-year-old's bid to take the mayor's office in a city known for its conservative Catholic politics has captured the attention of national newspapers and foreign media outlets. He is, after all, trying to become the first openly gay mayor in the country's history. But Galán insists his aspirations to govern Mexico's second-largest city go beyond championing issues important to the gay community.

"I'm not going to govern for just the gay community," Galán said while breaking from his campaign for the Social Democratic Party, or PSD, nomination in Guadalajara last weekend. "But I'm not going to forget it."

Mexican electoral campaigns traditionally have overlooked the gay community, which itself is said to be disparate in its partisan leanings and shy about venturing into the political arena. And few politicians or parties outside of Mexico City court the gay vote, or take up issues specific to the gay populace.

Galán recognizes the long odds. The conservative National Action Party, or PAN, has governed Guadalajara and Jalisco for the past 14 years and the Catholic Church wields enormous social influence there.

Galán, who was named the PSD candidate on Friday, will represent a party that only recently emerged from massive internal strife on the national level and is engaged in a struggle to pass the minimum-vote threshold in the July 5 elections that is necessary to maintain its registration with electoral authorities.

Galán's strategy, he says, will be to capitalize on the softening social attitudes in Guadalajara, which for all of its fame as a bastion of Catholic and conservative attitudes, is also home to a sizable gay community and many members of other religious sects. And Galán insists that Guadalajara as a whole is moving beyond many of its old stereotypes.

"Of course, we have this reputation, but in a city like Guadalajara . with more than 5 million people [in the metropolitan area], we can't say any longer that it's a conservative city," Galán said over iced tea and cigarettes on the patio of a popular café in the Colonia Americana, a leafy neighborhood where the gay community has a noticeable presence.

"It's a city that in many ways is cosmopolitan. There's every type of thinking, there's every kind of ideology - and liberals are continually gaining ground."

Galán confesses to bringing little political experience to his mayoral bid - he only joined the PSD within the past two months - but he does bring idealism and a background of fighting for social causes.

Originally trained as a helicopter pilot, he said that he wanted to use his skills to save dolphins from the nets of tuna fishermen, but became sidetracked with other projects.

Those projects included the founding of an Internet radio station for the gay community and later a gay-focused program on the University of Guadalajara's radio station. Galán also worked in the culture department of the municipal government - which now sponsors ancillary events at the city's annual gay pride parade - and was involved in launching a newspaper on women's issues.

Galán says that his "red socialist blood" came from his grandfather, who fought on the Republican side of the Spanish Civil War. He cites Spanish President José Luis Zapatero as a political hero on account of his liberalization agenda, which included a gay marriage initiative that passed.

Galán's interest in politics only grew stronger after the 2006 campaign of Patricia Mercado, who successfully courted the gay vote for Alternativa, as the PSD was previously known.

Like Mercado - who renounced her PSD membership last fall - Galán speaks more of issues like minority rights and equality than bread-and-butter municipal political issues like roads and sewers.

And in Guadalajara, he sees inequality in many places, including the way that more municipal money is spent on the wealthier west side of the city - where he resides in a neighborhood known for rosebushes lining the streets - than the working-class east side.

"If you go to the east side . you won't find one park in [good conditions] of security, cleanliness, and upkeep," he said. Even worse, he said, for every 12 trees on the west side, there's only one in eastern Guadalajara. On the east side of the divide, pollution from cement plants, winter bonfires and brick ovens produces air quality levels worse than those in Mexico City.

"If we all pay the same taxes, we should get exactly the same services," he said.

If elected, he promises to "review . and eliminate all discriminatory laws," and open City Hall for dialogue between groups that seldom come together - or even venture across the Calzada de la Independencia, a roadway that slices the city in two.

"At this moment, the rich fear the poor and vice versa, the poor fear the rich," Galán said. "No one is communicating with each other."

IS GUADALAJARA READY?

How Galán's message of tolerance and dialogue will be received is uncertain. Equally uncertain is if Guadalajara is ready for a gay mayor.

Activists in the gay community and political observers express differing opinions over the matter.

"The image people have of Jalisco is somewhat incorrect," said political science professor Joaquín Galindo Díaz of the University of Guadalajara, who agrees that changing social values work in the favor of Galán's candidacy. "Half of the population is conservative, but the other half, no."

That other half includes a gay community whose presence is visible and whose reputation is well-known outside western Mexico.

A 2003 survey in the local newspaper Mural found more gay-oriented businesses in Jalisco - split equally between Guadalajara and Puerto Vallarta, a long-time destination for gay tourists - than any other jurisdiction in the country.

And just last year, a 90 million peso donation by the Jalisco government toward the construction of a massive Catholic temple in the Guadalajara suburb of Tlaquepaque generated a record number of human rights complaints and spurred so many streets protests that the money was returned.

Others speak less enthusiastically about social change in Guadalajara, however. Aarón Díaz, who works with a health organization that runs a monthly HIV-testing clinic, said that the city is only marginally more tolerant than it was two decades ago. Back then, a conference that was set to be held by an international gay organization was hounded out of town, and the office of one gay advocacy group was even attacked with Molotov cocktails.

"Guadalajara has a reputation for double standards," Díaz said, adding, "the gay community itself is very conservative."

Díaz doesn't think the city is ready for a gay mayor. Others concur.

"This city is very Catholic . [and] not ready for a candidate like that" said Lili Ceja, who has been promoting PAN mayoral candidate Jorge Salinas in Guadalajara.

Still, at least some average citizens seem willing to take a chance on a candidate like Galán.

"Maybe he would be a little less worse than the other [politicians]," said taco stand waiter Mario Becerra.

Guadalajara rector spat highlights power struggle

Photo by Steven H. Miller

Guadalajara rector spat highlights power struggle

BY DAVID AGREN
The News

The University of Guadalajara ousted its rector Aug. 29 over vague allegations of mismanagement, sparking calls for campus demonstrations, a string of appeals and accusations of power-brokering at the nation's second-largest public university.

On Aug. 29, Rector Carlos Briseño was ousted by the university's governing council, a body packed with loyalists of Raúl Padilla, a controversial former student leader and rector who is considered by many to be the most influential figure in the university over the past 25 years.

Within hours, Marco Antonio Cortés, a Padilla ally, began occupying Briseño's office in the school's white marble rectory building.

Briseño, too, had once been a friend of Padilla, but after he began cozying up to the local governing National Action Party, or PAN, and the leading opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, both of whom had long been at odds with Padilla, he quickly fell out of favor.

"Carlos Briseño arrived [in the rector's] office by the decree of Raúl Padilla, but the strongman made a mistake," said El Universal columnist Jorge Zepeda, a former editor of the Guadalajara newspaper Siglo 21.

But Briseño wouldn't roll over and play dead, despite decisions by Jalisco Gov. Emilio González and the Public Education Secretariat not to intervene in the case. Instead, he immediately denounced his firing as illegal and began pleading his case to the citizens of the western state.

He convinced a local court to grant an injunction against the firing, but it was overturned Sept. 4 by a federal judge.

Meanwhile, back on campus, 1,500 sympathetic students and teachers in his support on Sept. 5, some of them chanting: "Out with the Padilla crowd!"



OLD-STYLE LEADERSHIP

Briseño assumed the post of rector in early 2007, and it did not take long before he was losing favor with his former mentor.

In late August, Briseño began suggesting reforms at the Centro Cultural Universitario, which oversees a group of successful businesses and projects including hotels, language schools, a burgeoning film festival and the prestigious International Book Fair - the second-largest event of its kind in the world.

Many of the projects had been founded by Padilla, and he had remained as the head of the center after stepping down from the rectory in 1995 at the end of a six-year term.

When asked in an Aug. 28 radio interview why the center and Padilla's leadership of it were being scrutinized, Briseño responded: "Absolute power corrupts.

"I don't have any proof, but we're investigating . we're going to audit each one of the university's businesses," he said.

The General University Council sacked Briseño a day later, citing budgetary mismanagement and insubordination.

For some observers, the firing showed how the university, despite its reputation as an institution on the vanguard of higher education, at the same time remains wedded to an old-style authoritarian leadership.

"At this university, both the past and present are very much alive," said Sergio Aguayo, a professor at the Colegio de México and a Jalisco native.

"There are parts that are excellent, but very large parts are extraordinarily backward in their political culture."



`A BENIGN STRONGMAN'

Zepeda, a University of Guadalajara graduate, called Padilla, "a benign strongman," whose use of power has been both "favorable and unfavorable."

Under Padilla's guidance, both as rector and behind-the-scenes playmaker, the school undertook modernization initiatives that included decentralizing power to regional centers beyond Guadalajara, and organizing successful cultural events.

"In many ways, it's been more at the [cultural forefront] of any other university of the country, including UNAM," Zapeda said.

But the U. de G. - as the school is known locally - has also been viewed suspiciously due to a lack of transparency in its finances. And the school's not-so-secret affiliation with the local Democratic Revolution Party, or PRD, which is headed by Padilla, also raised local hackles.

Briseño brought differing political allegiances to the Padilla inner circle. He was openly friendly to the PRI and numerous PRI functionaries, including Gov. Mario Marín of Puebla, Nayarit Gov. Ney González and party president Beatriz Paredes, attended his annual state of the university address in April 2008.

Local newspapers called the annual state of the university address "A coming-out party" for Jalisco's most prominent PRIísta.

Then, when he began forging better relations with the local PAN administration, which had previously denounced the U. de G. for a lack of transparency, he really fell out of favor.

"He had a series of political commitments, with political forces, that were inconvenient for the university . [including] the old national PRI," Zepeda said. "Briseño suddenly represented the possibility of breaking [the U. de G.] open, but for the worst reasons.

"Everyone views it as a jackpot."

Prelate's murder still haunts Jalisco

The Templo Expiatorio in Guadalajara

DAVID AGREN
The News

Cardinal Juan Jesús Posadas Ocampo went to the Guadalajara airport 15 years ago to welcome papal nuncio Archbishop Giralamo Prigione, who was coming to the country's second largest city to bless a furniture factory. But the two men never met.

Cardinal Posadas Ocampo, who was dressed in his usual clerical robes, was shot dead shortly after 5 p.m. as he stepped out of his car in front of the terminal.

A federal investigation said the prelate was inadvertently caught up in the crossfire of a shootout between the rival Tijuana and Sinaloa drug cartels, which were active in the Jalisco capital during the 1990s. Catholic officials reject the official explanation, however. They note that Cardinal Posadas Ocampo was shot at close range in an attack that also claimed the life of his chauffer and five others. No one has ever been convicted in the matter, although the investigation officially remains open.

The cardinal's death and the unresolved investigation have been long-standing sources of consternation in Jalisco, where the events of May 24, 1993 – and a massive explosion blamed on gasoline leaking into the sewer system barely 13 months prior – ushered in sweeping political and social change in one of the country's most fervently Catholic states.

"With the death of the cardinal, the government left a lot to be desired in its official explanation," said Mario Ramos González, a political science professor at the University of Guadalajara. "In the Catholic Church, there's still a lot of outrage."

Analysts credit the ascent of the National Action Party, or PAN, in the region to the general disgust with the inept government response to the 1992 explosions that flattened a five-kilometer stretch of a working class part of Guadalajara and killed at least 200 residents, and a Catholic backlash against the perceptions of a cover up in the investigation into the violent death of a popular prelate.

Agriculture Secretary Alberto Cárdenas, then the little-known mayor of Ciudad Guzmán, deposed the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, in 1994. The PAN, which tilts decidedly conservative in the region, later won consecutive gubernatorial elections in 2000 and 2006.

Columnist Jorge Zepeda, editor of the now-defunct Guadalajara daily Siglo 21 in the 1990s, compared the political impact of the explosions and assassination to the aftermath of the 1985 Mexico City earthquake, which gave rise to social movements and the left-wing Democratic Revolution Party, or PRD. But the shift in Jalisco went in the other direction, he added.

"The 1985 earthquake generated the formation of a civil society with distinct ideologies while in Guadalajara it was essentially a turn to the right," Zepeda said. "The cardinal's assassination generated a conservative militancy in defense of the church."

STATE CRIME

Speculation about what really transpired at the Guadalajara airport and who might be responsible for the cardinal's death is still rife in Mexico – even 15 years later. Theories on who might have carried out the cardinal's death range from narcotics traffickers to gunmen acting on the orders of senior politicians to the Masons.

Alfredo Araujo Ávila, a key hit man for the Arellano Felix cartel, was arrested in January and implicated in the Guadalajara shootout.

Cardinal Posadas Ocampo led an Archdiocese that was the base for narcotics trafficking gangs during the 1980s and 90s, leading to speculation that his criticisms - or relations with - might have sparked their wrath.

The Archdiocese of Guadalajara said the Araujo Ávila meant little as many Catholic officials consider the cardinal's death to be premeditated murder. Last week, the Mexican bishops' conference described the cardinal's death as "a state crime" and called on former President Carlos Salinas, who governed from 1998 to 1994, to produce more information on the matter.

Salinas has long been a polemic figure in the Cardinal Posadas Ocampo affair.

A new book by Guadalajara-area lawyers José Antonio Ortega and Fernando Guzmán – presently the No. 2 official in the Jalisco state government – alleges the former president made efforts to close the preliminary investigation.

They also allege that officials in the federal government are still hindering the investigation.

Salinas has denied any culpability in Cardinal Posadas Ocampo's death.

But the former president, according to a pair of reports by Ortega and Guzmán for then Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, was seeking the intervention of Pope Benedict XVI to have the death "not declared a state crime."

The report, which was obtained by the Excelsior newspaper last May, added that Salinas was also advancing the idea that "Freemasons and public servants of that persuasion" - Fernando Gutiérrez Barrios, who passed away in 2000, was mentioned by the lawyers - possibly ordered the cardinal's murder. The lawyers also noted that Cardinal Posadas Ocampo had been under surveillance in the days leading up to May 24, 1993.

One prominent Catholic leader during the 1990s disagreed, however. Luis Reynoso, a lawyer and the former bishop of Cuernavaca, quashed the conspiracy theories in a series of investigations in the late 1990s. Reynoso died in 2000, but his nephew recently released a book based on the bishop's investigations that insists the cardinal was in the wrong place at the wrong time and no proof of premeditated murder exists.

UNSATISFACTORY INVESTIGATION

Salinas left office in late 1994, but during the administration of his successors – Former Presidents Ernesto Zedillo and Vicente Fox – the investigation "did not advance," according to the reports by Ortega and Guzman.

"There hasn't been any will on the part of the government," said Adelberto González, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Guadalajara. "Until now there hasn't been a single conviction for having the cardinal murdered."

Church officials insist they're not looking for revenge. Cardinal Posadas Ocampo's successor, Cardinal Juan Sandoval, said in a statement issued last week, "The church wants to know the truth – even so that we know whom to forgive.

Adios a Guadalajara

The low-rent correspondent is becoming a little less low-rent these days. I recently accepted a senior reporting position in another part of the Republic. I'll divulge all of the details at the appropriate time.

I also left Guadalajara after nearly three years in La Perla Tapatia. Locals brand it El Rancho Grande, but the city is moving beyond its reputation as a provincial backwater. Just give it a few more years. I've only been gone a week and I already miss it.

Lake Chapala improves

According to a story in today's Publico (Milenio in Guadalajara), Lake Chapala's water level jumped by 30 centimeters during the first 10 days of August - the best rate since 1992. With at least six weeks left until the end of the rainy season, the water level stands at 58 percent capacity, just shy of the high point of 59 percent reached last fall. The upstream dams are also hoarding more water than usual.

Since Lake Chapala supplies some 70 percent of Guadalajara's water needs, the news sounds good. Unfortunately, Jalisco's dam-building brigade - previously led by both former PAN governor Francisco "Paco" Ramirez Acuna and state water commissioner Enrique Dau, the former PRI mayor of Guadalajara that left office in disgrace after the 22 de abril de 1992 explosion - are still championing the Arcediano Dam on the Santiago River near Guadalajara as the solution to the city's pending water problems.

Cleaning up Lake Chapala, which is fed by the toxic Rio Lerma, instead of trapping and distributing highly-contaminated water from behind the proposed Arcediano Dam might be more logical - but logic has never driven this agenda. As an example, the Arcediano Dam is being built near the convergence of the Rio Santiago and Rio Verde. It will be much lower than Guadalajara, meaning any power generated will go toward pumping the water out of the Huentitan Canyon and presumably cleaning it too.

Additionally, the original plans called for a second dam to also be built in the Los Altos region that would supply Leon, Guanajuato, a thirsty industrial city near former president Vicente Fox's San Cristobal Ranch. The original location would have flooded out San Gaspar de los Reyes. The plans were changed in 2005, though, after locals and migrants from the town living in the San Francisco Bay area raised a fuss.

Besides cleaning up the lake and ensuring a stable supply of water in a full Lake Chapala - instead of say, depleting the lake by allowing farmers in Guanajuato to irresponsibly draw so much from the Rio Lerma in order to grow strawberries for export - SIAPA, the Guadalajara area waterworks, could try fixing its leaky pipes, although with so many customers refusing to pay their water bills - customers can't be cut off - the utility is often lacking resources to repair all it's infrastructure.

Los extranjeros invaden Jalisco/Foreigners invade Jalisco

The National Immigration Institute (INM) released figures earlier this week showing that Jalisco has more foreign-born residents than any other Mexican state except for Baja California. (Chihuahua, which like Baja California is also on the border, placed third in the survey. It wasn't mentioned if data from the Federal District were included.)

With booming expat enclaves in the Chapala Riviera and Puerto Vallarta - the latter area spills into neighboring Nayarit state - this news about foreigners in Jalisco shouldn't come as a surprise. The INM said 56,065 foreign-born residents live in the state, a figure that's probably low as many people arriving in Jalisco simply obtain a tourist card - if anything - and stay for less than six months.

Somewhat curiously, a story announcing the INM findings in the Mural newspaper (subscription required) stated:

"La Perla Tapatia [as Guadalajara is referred to] is now considered one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the world."

Not so fast. Yes, Guadalajara is much less provincial than before, but locals still call it El Rancho Grande, in English: The Big Ranch. Many of the foreigners here, according to the INM, are studying in one of the seven local universities. But the city doesn't attract many expats that work and/or run businesses - spare some tech industry workers. (The average age of the foreign-born population is supposedly younger than the average Mexican, but this must simply reflect children born to Mexicans in the U.S. that now live down here.)

Foreign retirees now opt in much larger numbers to settle in the Lake Chapala area. (Take a look at the dwindling membership at the American Society of Jalisco if you don't believe me.) Adding to Chapala's appeal, it has an even better climate and less pollution than Guadalajara. Still, Guadalajara is one of the most livable big cities anywhere and tastes are becoming less conservative - even if the politics and social mores still tilt in that direction.

Dame una Duff!

An aspiring young entrepreneur in Guadalajara scooped up the rights to make beer under the Duff brand made famous by The Simpsons. The lager currently sells in Spain, although it should hit the Mexican market by mid July. Here's the story from today's Miami Herald Mexico Edition: http://www.mexiconews.com.mx/24725.html

Americanistas turn out in force

I've never especially liked Club America, a Mexico City soccer team owned by the Televisa empire. The side often wins and projects an image of power and status. It comes from the mammoth capital, where much of the country's political and economic power is still concentrated. Club America also fields well-paid imports and controversial figures like Cuauhtemoc Blanco, a prolific goal scorer, but bad teammate, who deserved to be left off of the 2006 World Cup squad.

Due in large part to Televisa's long reach, Club America is popular in virtually every part of Mexico - even in Guadalajara, the home of Chivas, a team that only fields Mexican players.

Here's my take on Club America's popularity in the provinces: http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/miami/24702.html

Siglo 21: Guadalajara's original muckrakers

The 15th anniversary of the 22 de abril de 1992 sewer explosion in Guadalajara passed recently so it seemed apt to recount the role of Siglo 21, an upstart newspaper that both predicted the imminent danger and provided thorough coverage of the explosion - unlike its derelict competitors, who were pushing the same old government line. The explosion changed journalism in Western Mexico; here's the story from the Miami Herald Mexico Edition:

National tragedy breathed new life into press

By David Agren/Special to The Herald Mexico
El Universal
Martes 01 de mayo de 2007

In the days leading up to April 22, 1992, residents in Guadalajara´s Sector Reforma neighborhood complained of an unpleasant gasoline odor coming from the sewer. Firefighters investigated, but their superiors reported at an April 21 press conference everything would be fine .

Alejandra Xanic, an intrepid reporter from the upstart newspaper, Siglo 21 (21st Century) took their comments skeptically, however. She stuck around and later encountered firefighters emerging from the sewers, who were openly worrying about a ticking time bomb under the streets. Xanic later filed a story on the imminent danger and based on her reporting, a map was drawn, showing the areas at greatest risk.

The front-page map proved prophetic. Shortly before 10 a.m. the next day, an explosion ripped up an eight-kilometer stretch of roadways, claiming more than 200 lives and leaving some 20,000 homeless. The competition, meanwhile, simply published unscrutinized accounts from the officials at the press conference.

The April 22, 1992 explosion ushered in vast social and political changes in the nation´s second-largest city. It also launched five-month-old Siglo 21 to prominence at a time when restrictions on the press were gradually loosening. Although it was only published for less than a decade, the independent newspaper radically transformed the news business in the region by practicing civic journalism, instead of feting the political classes. According to its original editor, Jorge Zepeda Patterson, the newspaper largely achieved its objective of playing a role in fomenting an open and more democratic society.

SIGLO 21 IS BORN

Somewhat ironically, Siglo 21 was founded by Alfonso Dau, the cousin of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) mayor of Guadalajara. In the early 1990s, few independent newspapers existed, although La Jornada in Mexico City, El Imparcial in Hermosillo and El Diario de Yucatán were increasingly going against the standard pro-establishment line.

To help bring the concept to Guadalajara, Dau recruited Zepeda, an academic from the Colegio de Michoacán, who had planned on pursuing a PhD in political science from the Sorbonne in Paris, as his editor. And rather than simply copy a U.S.-style newspaper or one of the more independent Mexican publications, the pair drew the inspiration for Siglo 21 from El Pais, a Spanish newspaper founded after the death of dictator Francisco Franco.

"I liked the role that El Pais had played in the Spanish transition," Zepeda explained in an interview last year, adding that they saw parallels in the Spanish and Mexican experiences."Our hope was ... that Siglo 21 fulfill a role similar to what El Pais had in its country."

After Zepeda had spent time learning the ropes at El Pais, the pair started Siglo 21 in November 1991.

The paper debuted at a time when vices were still rife in Mexican journalism. Many reporters sold advertising and augmented their incomes by penning favorable articles for their political clients. A government newsprint monopoly had previously denied paper to newspapers going against the PRI. Investigative journalism was uncommon.

In Guadalajara, Siglo 21 went up against two strong competitors, El Occidental and El Informador, which were both solidly behind the local establishment. Neither engaged in much in-depth reporting, but both were commercially strong - especially El Informador.

"(El Informador) was an institutional newspaper," Zepeda recalled. (Somewhat ironically, Zepeda now edits Mexico City magazine Día Siete, which is distributed in Guadalajara by El Informador.)

"It was a newspaper that didn´t present conflicts ... it curried favor with the political classes."
By contrast, Siglo 21 almost exclusively hired young reporters with no journalism experience. The newspaper paid better salaries. Reporters would generally write only one story a day and tackled tough subjects the competition wouldn´t.

Despite its maverick approach, the newspaper struggled for the first six months. Circulation stagnated at 4,000 copies a day.

Then the explosions came.

Gasoline from a Pemex pipeline had leaked into the sewer system. Theories abound as to what caused the leak and subsequent explosions - gasoline theft from clandestine pipeline connections, the accumulation of chemicals and solvents discarded by auto repair shops in the zone, and the construction of a subway line have all been mentioned - but the impact devastated a working-class zone southeast of the city center.

A DIFFERENT BREED

Having been the only newspaper to report on the imminent danger, Siglo 21 naturally led its peers in covering the disaster - and the inept government response. Its reporters lived with the homeless and blew the whistle on the rampant pilfering of relief supplies.

The paper also mercilessly skewered the government response and sought out the responsible parties. The state governor and mayor of Guadalajara - the cousin of Siglo 21´s owner - eventually left their posts. And while Siglo 21 dedicated 80 percent of its pages to coverage of the tragedy, the competition kept running the official government explanations - and bizarrely, non-urgent stories.

For the competition, "It was just another story," recalled Luis Miguel González, editorial director of the Público newspaper in Guadalajara, who covered the explosion for Siglo 21.
According to Zepeda, El Occidental ran a front-page story about "hunger in Russia" on the day following the explosion.

"I´m pretty sure that in Russia the explosion in Guadalajara was the most important story," he said.

In the days following the explosion, Siglo 21´s circulation soared to 40,000 copies, which made the newspaper "untouchable," although Zepeda said the federal government asked Siglo 21 to back off for "reasons of national security" as it was feared making Pemex look inept would diminish Mexico´s stature in NAFTA negotiations.

After the explosion coverage quieted down, Siglo 21 kept up its muckraking ways - and demonstrating its non-partisan approach. The paper reported on misdeeds that led to the ousting of the National Action Party (PAN) mayor of Zapopan. But frictions between Dau and Zepeda were becoming untenable. The new PAN administration in Guadalajara uncovered documents suggesting the PRI had paid Siglo 21 inflated advertising rates.

The end finally came after Zepeda received unsettling news from former President Ernesto Zedillo. During a trip to Guadalajara, Zedillo met with Zepeda and recounted how Dau offered Siglo 21´s support for the 1994 PRI presidential campaign in exchange for five million pesos.

The president reputedly told Zepeda in 1996, "In my 16 years of politics, I had never encountered such extortion."

After a terse confrontation with Dau, Zepeda quit. The former editor Zepeda later founded Público and in a fatal blow to Siglo 21, more than 90 percent of the newspaper´s staff went over to the new publication. Siglo 21 eventually folded after Dau reportedly failed to pay his employees.

Público was sold to the Milenio chain shortly after Zepeda founded the newspaper in 1997. A well-financed competitor was coming to Guadalajara with a US$18 million war chest. Zepeda feared he couldn´t compete on a commercial level.

Despite Siglo 21´s demise, Luis Miguel González said the newspaper accomplished its objectives. And Zepeda agreed.

Atlas, Guadalajara's fresa team, struggles for respect

Mexican society has its fresas (young snobs, usually from wealthy families) and nacos (tacky or bad mannered folk, who will never penetrate the Mexican elite's closed circles; think Rodney Dangerfield in Caddy Shack), although these days, it's sort of trendy to be naco (just witness the fresas packing the Lucha Libre in Guadalajara on Tuesday nights.)

In soccer, Guadalajara's Club Atlas is considered fresa. It draws many of its fans from the west side of the metropolitan area and the area's private universities. But the club is ironically one of the least affluent in the Mexican league - and has only once captured a championship. It lags far behind Chivas, the common man's team, in both popularity and on-field success. Atlas, though, develops more talent than any other Mexican club, through its network of soccer academies, which have churned out star players Oswaldo Sanchez, Rafael Marquez and Jared Borgetti - among others. (All now play elsewhere.) Seven current and former Atlistas suited up for Mexico's 2006 World Cup squad.

With the Tapatio Classic between Atlas and Chivas going tonight, here's my piece on Club Atlas in today's Miami Herald Mexico: http://www.mexiconews.com.mx/24239.html

Always patronize a busy taco stand

I eat far too many tacos, although I'm no longer consuming the straight-taco diet I was gorging myself on when first arrived in Mexico. It being Lent, fish tacos are pretty popular these days in most parts of Mexico and the line on Fridays stretches at least 15 deep at Happy Fish, a seafood taco stand in suburban Guadalajara that I like to patronize. For just 12 pesos, Cesar Diaz and his crew serve up fried and battered "La Paz-style" shrimp or fish tacos (octopus was taken off the menu for some reason). Best of all, the condiment stand is loaded with more than 20 options, ranging from coleslaw to thick guacamole.

Even during the non-Lenten period Happy Fish does a brisk business. There's always a line - a good sign for a taco stand since the locals here advise against eating at an empty place. And like a good Mexican, I confess seeing the line outside Happy Fish initially piqued my curiosity. Sure enough, it's both cheap and good. Here's my story on the place for the Herald Mexico: http://www.mexiconews.com.mx/24055.html

Poutine arrives in Mexico

Chef Bernard shows off poutine
Originally uploaded by David Agren.

Chef Bernard Corriveau proudly shows off a plate of poutine. The Quebec native, who now resides in Zapopan, prepared the dish for a group of cooks from the Sanborns restaurant chain. Sanborns locations in Guadalajara will put poutine on the menu this month as part of Canada Week in Jalisco. No word on if Carlos Slim, Latin America's wealthiest man and the owner of Sanborns, signed off on the menu selection.

Poutine, a plate of french fries smothered in gravy and cheese curds, is wildly popular in Quebec - not to mention an instant heart attack.

Dolf Horn, R.I.P.

Mr. Adolf B. Horn Jr., the former U.S. consul in Guadalajara, passed away earlier this week. He was 95. The Cuban-born Horn, a pioneer in Jalisco's expatriate community, founded Helados Bing in 1965 at a location near Guadalajara's Los Arcos and served for more than three decades as the local president of the American Chamber. Horn sold Helados Bing in the early 1980s and later became involved with Dolphy, another chain of ice cream stores.

Over the years Horn became somewhat of a living legend in Guadalajara's business community. A road in suburban Tlajomulco de Zuñiga was named after him, although it was in somewhat of a sorry state in recent years.

Horn also counted friends on all sides of the political spectrum. He was friends with various presidents and governors and was always a proponent of Mexico opening up to the outside world.

I interviewed Horn previously. Here's something I wrote on him for the Miami Herald, Mexico edition back in Oct. 2005. http://agren.blogspot.com/2005/10/ice-cream-pioneer-still-going-strong.html

Allan Rose: Canadian trailblazer in Ajijic

Allan Rose served as honorary Canadian consul in Guadalajara for more than a decade. The Ajijic resident was one of the early Canadian arrivals in the Lake Chapala area, which is now site of the largest enclave of expatriate Canadians outside of Canada - spare parts of Florida in the winter. He's a charming and engaging fellow, here's profile I wrote on him for the Miami Herald, Mexico edition: http://www.mexiconews.com.mx/miami/22907.html

Discount carriers jet across Mexico for less

I escaped the Federal District yesterday morning on a Volaris flight, taking advantage of one of Mexico's new discount airlines. Even though the flight departed from Toluca, 70 km to the west, the whole process was just as easy - but much cheaper - than going from the main Mexico City airport. (Finding an available taxi in the Colonia Roma at 5 a.m. was another matter.)

My one-way flight to Guadalajara cost less than 600 pesos - about the same as a first class bus ticket on ETN. Everything was top notch - especially the lattes served in the Toluca airport - and Volaris provides many nice touches like free cajeta snacks upon deplaning. The Pinguinos (Mexican version of a twinkie) served for breakfast were a little disappointing, but that's about all.

Live cheap in Tlaxcala

Perhaps not surprisingly, Los Cabos, a pair of burgeoning towns at the tip of the Baja Peninsula, jumped to No. 1 in a survey of living costs in 42 Mexican cities, surpassing the expensive Federal District and industrial hub Monterrey. Tlaxcala, a small state capital (of a state also named Tlaxcala) just east of Mexico City came in last. In a slight surprise, Guanajuato, a picturesque university town set in a canyon, was second-least expensive.

Here are the results of the Mercer Consulting survey:

Most expensive:
1. Los Cabos, Baja California Sur
2. Monterrey, Nuevo Leon
3. Mexico City, Federal District
4. Cancun, Quintana Roo
5. Tijuana, Baja California
6. Guadalajara, Jalisco

Least expensive:
1. Tlaxcala, Tlaxcala
2. Guanajuato, Guanajuato
3. Chetumal, Quintana Roo
4. Durango, Durango
5. Pachuca, Hidalgo

*Information published in the Excelsior newspaper, but not online.

The good guys (read: Chivas) capture Mexican soccer title

Long-suffering Chivas fans took to the streets on Sunday after their squad bested Toluca 2-1 to capture the Mexican league's Apertura (Opening leg). The Guadalajara-based team only fields Mexican players - which endears it to millions across the Republic - and hadn't won the championship since 1997. Along with celebrations at Lakeside, Chivas fans also swarmed the Glorieta Minerva in Guadalajara and the Angel monument in Mexico City and later lined a two-kilometer stretch of the Carretera Guadalajara-Chapala (which runs by the airport) in order to welcome their conquering heroes home.

Despite the loss, Toluca, the runner up, has perhaps been Mexico's most successful club over the past decade. According to sports marketing expert Hector Lopez Zatarain, the Diablos Rojos (Red Devils, as Toluca is known) have been well managed and seen little turnover. Players are also paid promptly - unlike at some other clubs. The consistency differs from the coaching carousel in Guadalajara, but with a championship under his belt, no one's really blaming Chivas colorful owner Jorge Vergara for anything right now.

Update: The Miami Herald, Mexico Edition ran my piece on why Chivas' is more than just a popular soccer team.

That giant sucking sound gets louder

A decade after railing against NAFTA and infamously speaking of a "giant sucking sound" - jobs being pulled south to Mexico - the company founded by former presidential candidate Ross Perot bolted for Guadalajara, where, according to the company, Perot Systems Corporation will employ 270 engineers.

It's an obvious win for Guadalajara, dubbed the Silicone Valley of Mexico - and referred to as such far too often by the foreign press. The local technology sector slumped badly earlier in the decade as foreign competitors put the boots to Guadalajara - and much of Mexico for that matter. But things are bouncing back; HP, IBM, Flextronics and Solectron all have significant operations in the area. A friend in the industry said many companies find it more convenient to have operations closer to the U.S. - something that compensated for the lack of cost advantages in Asia. Competitiveness is an issue though as tax incentives make keeping an inventory of supplies costly and there's not a 24-hour port of entry at the Guadalajara airport.

Lower wages in Mexico was cited as a reason for the Guadalajara expansion. Many university-educated Mexicans speak English, but there's also a glut of professionals, which, in part, drives down wages.

In an interesting twist, Perot will rent space in the local World Trade Center, which has been sparsely occupied since its completion. Despite the abundance of space, new offices keep being constructed and rents stay stubbornly high.

Hockey, Mexico-style: The Zamboni is broken, and the players are on strike. Sigh

From the Ottawa Citizen

David Agren
Citizen Special

GUADALAJARA, Mexico -- The old barn looks like something from the Canadian Prairies with its rounded roof and small ticket booth next to the front door. Inside, a sprinkling of fans shiver on the wooden bleachers, sipping coffee and eating doughnuts. Players in full equipment chase the puck up and down a dimly lit rink.

Welcome to Ice Land in Guadalajara, where turmoil over money plagues the local hockey scene -- just like in Canada. The four adult teams in Mexico's second-largest city packed up their skates and sticks two months ago to protest high rink fees and ice conditions that could charitably be described as horrible.

"The owner doesn't care about maintaining (the rink)," complains Omar Guzman, a defenceman in the recreational league and coach of the peewee and bantam teams here. "The Zamboni doesn't work properly."

The surface in Ice Land is carved to shreds. Puddles cover the back portions of the faceoff circles in the rink's south end. Tire marks from the Zamboni mar the centre ice area. Several feet before the end boards, the ice is a tangled mass of impassible shards. One corner lacks proper boards and glass is missing from behind one of the nets.

Although the rink is third-rate by Canadian standards, the rental fee is high. "It's expensive, Guzman explains. "If this was good, (the price) would be fine."Despite the actions of their adult peers, the peewee and bantam squads still practice on the substandard surface, providing Western Mexico's only live ice hockey fix.

At first glance, these guys resemble a decent Canadian house team. Take number 19: he looks like an average hockey player with his green Dallas Stars jersey, black CCM pants and and white helmet. But while leading a two-on-none break he fans on a pass, loses an edge and slides on his backside into a giant puddle behind the net. With the rink in a state of disrepair, the players move one of the nets 10 feet toward centre to avoid the mess. The puck jumps haphazardly over the players' sticks all practice long.

Obviously, not many youngsters take up ice hockey in soccer-mad Mexico. About 80 players, covering all age groups, skate regularly in Guadalajara, a city of almost five million people. A team from the city travelled to the famous Quebec International Peewee Tournament earlier this year, losing all of its games, including a 14-0 thrashing by a French squad.

Guzman, 25, has suited up for Mexico in several lower-tier world championship tournaments. The team finished in last place on one occasion and near the bottom the rest of the time.

"We have good players," he contends, but the team needs "more support."

Sporting dreadlocks, jeans and a blue Disneyland pullover, he puts the 13 youngsters through a standard series of skating and shooting drills, but takes time during water breaks to make out with his girlfriend, who watches all of his practices and plays with the city's lone female team.

He idolizes New Jersey Devils defenceman Scott Stevens for the way he hits. As practice winds down, he introduces a contact drill; he bodychecks each player -- some half his age -- trying to get by him with the puck. Disgusted with one slacking player, he crosschecks him from behind into the boards -- an infraction that would bring a five-minute major in any Canadian league.

Still, it's a reminder of home for this Canadian -- until the practice ends and the players leave the cold, dark rink for the gentle breeze of a warm Mexican evening.

David Agren is a Canadian writer living in Mexico.