Jalisco PRI airs dirty laundry

The PRI and its supposedly legendary machine sputtered on July 2 - even in enclaves like Oaxaca, where some of the party's old-school tactics live on. (Look at the situation there to see what it eventually brought about.) But in Jalisco, where the PRI nominated a seemingly attractive candidate and the PAN appeared stale after 12 years of governance, things were supposed to be different. Unlike the PAN, which went on the attack and really never focused too heavily on its track record or candidate, the PRI fronted Arturo Zamora and based their campaigns on the former Zapopan mayor. He performed reasonably well, but couldn't escape untimely allegations and document leaks that purportedly linked him to fraud. Having the PGR appear on his Valle Real doorstep mere days before the election didn't help either.

Perhaps some of the PRI defections to the PRD on the state level earlier this year weren't so opportunistic - after all, if the party is in this big a mess and the alleged culture of buying nominations and cronyism exists, why not jump? And perhaps the PAN legislator I interviewed last month about his party's success was correct when he suggested that the PRI erred by only promoting Zamora and that the PAN capitalized on lingering discontent from PRI rule prior to 1995.

El Clasico kicks off today

Club Deportivo Guadalajara - better known as Chivas and perhaps Mexico's most beloved squad - squares off against its archrival and the villain of Mexican futbol, Mexico City's Club America. The lacks a bit of the passion of previous years, mainly due to Chivas long-time malaise - not withstanding last year's fluke run to the semi-finals where it lost in the final minute to eventual champion Pachuca. Chivas hasn't won the Mexican league since 1997. It's Los Angeles-based sibling has fared poorly in two seasons of existence in the MLS.

America, a 10-time champion, wins regularly and fields a star-studded roster, although no player quite commands attention like temperamental striker Cuauhtemoc Blanco, who despite his skills, is viewed as a bad team player and was left off of the 2006 World Cup squad. (He's also considered one of Mexico's biggest nacos.) To use an American sports comparison, America is the Raiders, a team famed for its winning ways - well, not this season - rowdy fans and bad guy image. Boosting its loathsome image, broadcasting empire Televisa owns the team. The network heavily promotes the club and weens generations of fans on America propaganda through its kids programs - or so I'm told. A Grupo Reforma poll last year said America was Mexico's most popular team with Chivas ranking a close second.

Chivas, on the other hand, are the defacto national team; it only dresses Mexican players. Team officials figure 25 million fans follow the team in Mexico and another five million fans are in the United States. The squad also boasts a large fan base in Mexico City. In many ways, cheering for Chivas is a way of the provinces going against the powerful and influential capital. An old saying says, "In Mexico, you vote for the PRI, pray to the Virgin of Guadalupe and cheer for the Chivas." Basically, they're the good guys of Mexican soccer.

Wal-Mart to enter Mexican banking business

Away from the fuss raised by supporters of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who invaded Mexican Wal-Mart stores earlier this week to protest supposed voting pressure exerted on employees, the retail giant announced plans to enter Mexico's banking banking industry. The move could shake up a rather staid industry that many Mexicans distrust - and in the case of Lopez Obrador and his supporters, absolutely loath - and whose services are often hard to access due to tight lending policies and sky-high fees.

For Wal-Mart the extension appears natural. It has more than 700 stores and restaurants operating under various brand names, including Bodega, VIPs, Superama and Suburbia. It's also Mexico's largest retailer. Banco Azteca, which offers services in Elektra outlets, could be the model Wal-Mart is copying. (Banks in groceries stores are common in Canada and the U.K.) It could be a welcome alternative to loosely-regulated credit unions, which provide easier terms and can be popular, but risky places to park money. (Witness the spate of credit union closures in Jalisco in recent years.)

As for Lopez Obrador's supporters going after Wal-Mart, the company is just the latest villain in the presidential candidate's charges of election fraud. (And a prime target for the American left in the upcoming mid-term elections.) The company, Mexico's biggest private-sector employer, apparently urged it employees to vote in the July 2 election. And in the view of Lopez Obrador supporters, the company instructed workers to back the conservative National Action Party (PAN). Despite the general "cleanliness" of the election, tales - and rumors - of misdeeds are common.

In PAN states like Jalisco, workers in a number of industries complained of coercion after the election, saying they were told how to vote.

It could work the other way in PRD bastions, too. In Mexico City, rumors abound of vendors being dragooned into pro-Lopez Obrador protests - at the risk of losing their spots in tianguis markets. Despensas, gifted by all parties, haven't disappeared either.

Of course, in the days of one-party rule, unions told members how to vote - and bucking the instructions brought consequences.

Tomato King makes more news

Andres Bermudez, a.k.a. The Tomato King, recently captured a congress seat for the National Action Party (PAN) after two embattled years in the Jerez, Zacatecas mayor's office. Bermudez, who almost always dresses in black cowboy clothing, made news most recently for not taking off his large hat while addressing congress. (Opposition lawmakers jeered him.) The offence, on the scale of things that go on in Mexico's somewhat disfunctional congress and senate, is rather minor, but it's kept him in the news.

Bermudez was also chosen as the PAN leader in congress. He told reporters after being chosen, "Of course I'll keep being the king of tomatoes!" and promised to give all of the media members trips to Disneyland "so that there they can fulfill their dreams and declare Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador or Mickey Mouse president ... whoever they want!"

He gained fame, of course, by inventing a tomato planting device that supposedly earned him a fortune and then returning to Zacatecas from California to start a political career. Although now a panista, Bermudez originally ran for mayor under the PRD banner in 2001. The left-leaning party later rejected him as a candidate in 2004.

Sanmiguelada update

Two local men were shot - one in the abdomen, the other in the leg - following last Saturday's Sanmiguelada, San Miguel de Allende's annual running of the bulls. The victim shot in the stomach was apparently sent to Leon for medical care. According to people in the area (much of this "news" was obtained from second-hand sources) gang activity is to blame and the shooter, 16, is known.

All of this has some civic officials questioning what the Sanmiguelada has become. Many people complain about the influx of drunken fresa kids, but this dust up was between locals.

The economic impact - for some - is hard to deny; one nightclub charged a 450-peso cover on Saturday night, hotels were reportedly full. The estimated 20,000 visitors supposedly spent $1.5 million over the weekend - none of it in liquor stores, which were closed due to a ley seca (dry law) that forbade retail booze sales. Public drinking was rife, though. (Visitors brought their own stuff.)

A total of 53 people were injured, according to the local Cruz Roja. (Figures vary, but I'll go with what the Cruz Roja said.)

Oaxaca update

For the latest information on the situation in Oaxaca, please visit this online discussion hosted by Planeta. It's a great source on what's been going on and reading the perspectives of people who actually live in Oaxaca.

The news flowing out of the state has mostly been unfavorable, but according to people I've spoken with in both Oaxaca city and the coast, it's safe to visit - even though the U.S. and Canadian governments advise agaisnt travel - and locals are going about their lives as best they can.

Sanmiguelada: lots of hype, drinking ... and shootings?

Bulls, being taunted and teased by want-to-be toreros raced around a circuit in central San Miguel de Allende yesterday afternoon in the annual Sanmiguelada, the colonial town's version of Pamplona, Spain's running of the bulls. After being crushed in a narrow spectator area and nearly being bowled over by a motley group of runners - naco punks, dare I call them - who insisted on leaving the course through a tightly-packed section, dodging angry bulls would have been more fun, safer and a lot more comfortable than standing for hours, pressed against a brick wall.

The event, which draws college-age students from across Mexico, grates on many locals, who populate a rather genteel spot - fiesta de los locos and weekly excess fireworks day excluded - that mostly attracts people from north of the border. (After two people were shot in a post-race dust up, it could become even less popular.) Numerous coffee shops and boutiques shut down yesterday. Public drinking was ubiquitous - despite a ley seca (dry law). The eye candy, however, was impressive and the night life: active.

But on the whole, the event is largely over-rated. I wrote a more descriptive piece on the Sanmiguelada for today's edition of The Herald Mexico.

Annual event re-examined

BY DAVID AGREN
El Universal
September 24, 2006

SAN MIGUEL DE ALLENDE, Gto. - Like most of the revelers in San Miguel de Allende on Saturday for the annual running of the bulls, U.S. exchange student David Darmitzel and four friends came to the colonial city on a lark, leaving Mexico City late Friday night and sleeping in a park due to a lack of hotel space.

"We´ve got our fuel ... we got an hour of sleep," he boasted while sipping a can of Red Bull, a caffeine-laden energy drink, two hours before the event started.

"We´re fearless."

An estimated 20,000 tourists descended on San Miguel for the annual Sanmiguelada, the Guanajuato town´s version of Pamplona, Spain´s annual running of the bulls. In addition to partying hard, most of the young visitors mainly stood in crushing crowds on the sidelines, watching local youngsters taunt and evade angry bulls, although a few tourists also participated. The annual influx swells the coffers of locals bars and hotels; the local tourism office figured visitors spend US$1.5 million.

But many residents and some business owners grouse about the event´s impact on the town, bemoaning the excessive public drinking and the spring-break style of tourism being promoted in a place that normally attracts a somewhat genteel crowd - to both visit and reside.

"Of the local people, maybe 50 percent are against it," said Dr. Roberto Maxwell, director of the Cruz Roja. "I call this the weekend of sex, booze and drugs."

To maintain order and cut down on injuries, the municipal government brought in 160 additional police officers from neighboring towns and imposed a ley seca (dry law), which outlawed retail liquor sales and public drinking prior to the event. Furthermore, bars couldn´t open until 2 p.m. on Saturday.

Dr. Maxwell attributed a decline in injuries over the past decade to the crackdown, although liquor-company sponsorships were virtually everywhere, including the downtown course.

Fifteen years ago, more than 200 injuries were reported. After 47 were injured last year, this year´s preliminary figure was 53 injuries.

"The most common thing is that people are injured by their fellow runners," Dr. Maxwell explained. "It´s rare that someone gets gored."

RITE OF PASSAGE

Many of the Sanmiguelada participants run every year and learn to survive the stampede-like frenzy unharmed. Adán Canelo, 17, a student in Celaya, Guanajuato, said the best way to avoid injury was "not to get close to the bull."

While according to many spectators, the bulls in this year´s event were somewhat less aggressive than before, a number of participants failed to heed his advice.

For local youths, running with the bulls has become a rite of passage, according to Antonio Rivera, a taxi driver, who ran three times as a teenager.

"A lot of the young people here participate," he said, adding, "Most of the adults enjoy watching it at home on television instead."

According to Guillermo González, general manager of the San Miguel Tourism Board, the Sanmiguelada started 33 years ago after a group of friends, including the then-mayor, organized the first event for both recreational reasons and as a way to promote the town. Virtually no one attended the first Sanmiguelada, but it slowly grew in popularity, becoming a weekend for students to invade the town.

"A lot of young people come because it´s the cool thing to do," said Blanca Hinojosa, 21, a university student from Monterrey, while sipping an enormous margarita in Mama Mía, a bar near the Jardín in the center of town.

Like many visitors, she came ready for anything, including the ley seca.

"We brought our own stuff. We came prepared," said Hinojosa.

SOME SHOPS CLOSE

Thrill seekers brought in by the Sanmiguelada prompted many coffee shops and boutiques to close early. Estela González normally waits on tables each Saturday at La Buena Vida, a bakery cafe, but she was given the day off.

"We sell baked goods ... but young people only come looking for beer and alcohol," she explained.

"They all come looking to use the bathroom for free."

Detlev Kappstein, owner of Berlin, a restaurant-bar, said his usual clientele stays home during the Sanmiguelada and that to keep order in his establishment, he planned to work as a bouncer this weekend. Still, he understands why some business owners welcome the Sanmiguelada.

"Most of (the visitors) are kids with money," he explained.

"They come with their parents´ credit cards."

Guillermo González played down some of the complaints, saying, "The tourists mostly come for the (post-Sanmiguelada) bullfights and the nightlife." (Unlike in Pamplona, the bulls in the Sanmiguelada are not killed afterward in a bullfight.)

"It´s one day. It´s not similar to the beach ... like spring break," he added.

Some restaurant employees concurred.

"San Miguel is a tourist spot," said Alejandro Reséndiz, a bartender at Mama Mía.

"This is how the economy works."