Beyond the Tacos: Political Turmoil in Mexico

I love Mexico. The food, the people and the culture are absolutely amazing. However, Mexico does have some structural problems that impinge on my ability to fully enjoy the country, and deter me from wanting to live here long term. Here are three examples of recent political events that highlight what I mean: 1) Metro Line 12, 2) Bullet Train Bid, 3) 43 Normalistas. The three examples go from meh, to UGggh, to WTF IS GOING ON!!

Metro Line 12
The Mexican government wanted to expand the subway system in Mexico City in the south. It was a very important project for the government and they spent 70% of the Subway system's annual budget on constructing Line 12. One government body was in charge of the trains and another government body was in charge of the tracks and stations. That proved to be a poor method of management as the two entities didn't communicate with one another properly, and the trains purchased, ended up being incompatible with the tracks.

Second problem, the tracks ended up being laid down and designed outside of the technical specifications of the contract, but the government signed off on the work anyway. The result was that the corners were too tight and a train derailed, which closed half of the line indefinitely until the turns are made within specifications. The problem is that legally since the government signed-off on the non-complaint work (probably a bribe or two), they have no legal power to sue the track developer to fix the non-compliant turns. As a precaution for the half of the line that was not closed, the trains now travel at just 35 kilometers per hour (22 mph), instead of the designed 55 kilometers per hour (34 mph). I have taken the train at 22 mph and it is absurdly slow and makes the whole system (or the half that is open) inefficient.

The fate of Metro Line 12 is still in discussion. There is no budget left to make the needed modifications AND the government can't force the developer to make the changes. What was supposed to be Mexico City's new modern metro line, the first in many years, has ended up being a nonfunctional example of cronyism in public sector works.

Bullet Train Mexico City - Querétaro
In September the Mexican Government announced that a $4 billion dollar bullet train to be built from Mexico City to Querétaro (210 km) had been awarded to China Railway Corporation.

The problem was that China Railway Corporation was the only bidder on the project, which had initially had several dozen interested firms. So what happened, why did all the other firms drop out? Turns out for this $4 billion dollar project, the government only had a period of 2 months for interested firms to make their proposals, which include binding terms on project costs. In other words, firms had just 2 months to find partner firms, perform studies, calculate estimated project costs (including the cost to operate the rail line for 10 years), and submit their proposals. During this two month process, the Mexican government was continually changing significant aspects of the bid including technical specifications and other terms. The result was that almost all of the firms made requests to extend the deadline for proposals given that they didn't have adequate time to prepare and modify their proposals given the complexity of the project. These companies were not newbies either- Bombardier of Canada, Germany’s Siemens and France’s Alstom  These requests were denied and the project was awarded to China Railway Corporation.

 A little more about China Railway Corporation, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto had met with executives of China Railway Corporation privately months before the public bidding for the train was announced. China Railway Corporation also partnered with a Mexican company that had built a $7 million dollar house for President Enrique Peña Nieto´s family. Some suspect that Enrique Peña Nieto discussed the project ahead of time with these executives in order to give them sufficient time to prepare their proposal.

Two weeks ago the government announced that the bidding award had been revoked from China Railway Corporation in order to ensure “absolute clarity, legitimacy and transparency”. President Peña Nieto is having political problems associated with the third example, and he didn´t think he had sufficient political capital to let this project go to the only bidder amidst so many questions. A new bidding process with a longer deadline will start at the end of this month.

Mexico´s 43 Student Tragedy
This last example is truly tragic. On September 26th, students from a rural college that were training to be teachers in rural schools (think schools without electricity), went to protest a dinner party being held by the Mayor of Iguala´s wife. The Mayor´s wife was the sister of the founders of a drug cartel called Guerreros Unidos, The students were protesting the policies of the governor. As context, Iguala has a population of 110,000 and is not far from Acapulco. The Mayor´s wife didn´t want the students to ruin her dinner party so she made a call to the police to "take care of the situation." The police showed up and killed 6 students right away, and rounded up the remaining 43 and put them in buses. The students have been missing ever since. Their fate is not confirmed, but 3 witnesses have emerged with the following story. The police delivered the 43 students to the Guerreros Unidos drug cartel. The drug cartel drove the students into the wilderness and tortured and killed them. They then piled the bodies up with rubber tires and gasoline and burned the bodies for 14 hours. The ashes and bones were gathered and put into garbage bags, and then thrown into the river.

While "authorities" were looking for the students they discovered multiple mass grave sites that they believed contained the students. Forensic tests later determined that each of these mass graves sites containing charred bodies came back negative. It would come out in the newspaper that the students´ bodies might have been found, to later come back and say "nope, nevermind, wrong mass grave." The media presented it as good news that the students were maybe still alive, but Mexicans felt disgusted that there were so many of these mass graves containing who knows who. How can that be good news?

The reprecussions of the incident have been big, but not as big as you might expect. The Mayor and his wife immediately went on the run, but were found a few weeks later thanks to a hefty ransom. The governor of the state where Iguala is, was forced to resign amdist public pressure. There have been huge protests in Mexico City for the 43 disappeared students. The Mexican government is eager to put this event past them, and they hoped that the testimonies explaining the fate of the students would do just that; however, the families of the students, in an excellent political calculation to maximize the impact of this event, refuse to acknowledge that the students are dead until they have their bodies. The effect of this is a lingering political nightmare for the government.

Prior to this event, the foreign media was in love with Mexico. The government had passed some much needed constitutional reform opening up the energy sector, breaking up telecommunications monopolies, and breaking up corrupt and powerful teachers unions. Everyone referred to this reform as "Mexico´s Moment." Now the media is seeing that perhaps Mexico wasn´t as modernized as everyone thought. Unfortunately, it is extremely difficult to remove corruption and cronyism from a society in which it has existed for a long time. It doesn´t happen in a few years, it takes decades. It doesn´t help that the American drug market is $40 billion annually, which is fuel on the fire as it creates the perfect opportunity for rich criminals to bribe underpaid officials and law enforcement.

It remains to be seen what will be the long-term effects of the 43 normalistas. The President and ruling party, PRI, has certainly taken a tremendous hit to their political capital, but the Presidential election isn´t until 2018, so people could forget by then. Here are some articles about the 43 students if you are curious.

http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/crisis-mexico-forty-three-missing-students-spark-revolution?intcid=mod-most-popular

http://www.economist.com/blogs/americasview/2014/10/mexico-s-student-tragedy

http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2014/10/10/355140186/43-missing-students-1-missing-mayor-of-crime-and-collusion-in-mexico

http://www.economist.com/blogs/americasview/2014/11/mexico-s-missing-students

Overall, Mexico is amazing culturally, but if it is going to take off as one of the top 10 most powerful nations, which it easily could, it needs to shore up it´s systemic corruption and increase it´s accountability of public officials.

Food & Football

Soccer in Mexico. 
The soccer league in Mexico is called Liga MX and has 18 teams. Here are the current standings. 

The main four teams are América 26%, Chivas 20%, Cruz Azul 10%, Pumas 9%. The percentages next to the teams correspond to the percentage of Mexicans nationwide claiming that to be their preferred team. Surprisingly Cruz Azul and especially Chivas (Guadalajara) are not doing so hot. Chivas is at risk of relegation to the second division if they finish in last place, something that happened to Argentina´s top team River Plate a few years ago. Of the top 4 teams, all but Chivas are in Mexico City. 

The Cruz Azul stadium is a 5 minute walk from my house, so naturally I went with them as my team of choice. It is more of a middle to low-class team (the sponsor is a cement company), but I like the convenience. I went to a game last Saturday and I bought the most expensive ticket for 95 pesos, or 7 dollars. The seats in the home fans section behind the goal (like at Sounders games), are only 50 pesos, or $4. I have a feeling I´m going to go to a lot of games. The quality of play is very good, perhaps better than the Sounders. The Sounder´s record against Mexican teams in the Liga MX is 3-6, which shows it´s a pretty high level here. The Sounders recently played Chivas in September and split games 1-1. 

Here are some pictures from the game:



And the classic, police protecting player on corner kick from debris from fans:

This Saturday is Cruz Azul vs. América, which is considered a classic, clásico, as they are two of the most popular teams in Mexico, and have the cross-city rivalry of being in Mexico City. The tickets are more expensive for this at 300 pesos or $22, but still worth it in my mind to see the environment. 

Food

I love food. While DF doesn´t have the same diversity of food as San Francisco, it certainly beats it on convenience and price. Recently I have discovered equite, which is a cup of corn with lime juice, mayonaise, chili pepper, and salt. It costs $1.25 and is very filling. A great grab on my way home from work. I also recently spotted the cheapest tacos I have seen so far: 7 tacos for 80 cents. I decided not to risk it... this time. 
Esquite:

In the morning there are a variety of sellers with apparatuses attached to bicycles that ride street by street shouting their goods. The most classic is the tamale guy who has a recording that goes like this (start at 20 seconds): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aTAOAHq6FU 
Here's a picture. This is actually the sweet potatoe guy.


Another guy just shouts PPPAAAAAAANNNNN, which means bread. There are also other vendors selling gas. Mexico City has about 2 million vehicles, and 9 million people (in city limits), so certain things like gas tanks need to be delivered to your house as not everyone has a car to go pick it up from the store. 

Close to my house I have a number of food options. The following things are within 2 blocks: supermarket, brazilian steakhouse, argentinian steakhouse, ice cream, frozen yogurt, 7/11, french restaurant, Mexican restaurant, tacos, ceviche, esquite, birria (goat stew). So I think I´m pretty well situated. Haven´t yet been to the brazilian steakhouse but it´s only $160 pesos, or $13 USD, and they have unlimited meat on swords. 

In case you were wondering if there were hipsters in DF, let me answer that with a picture:

Notice the hipster hat, and t-shirt with fish on it. The pug is thinking, what the hell am I doing here.

On Sunday I went to a food truck event with about 15 food trucks. The prices were more reasonable than SF food trucks, but still way more than they should be. I like to call this the Hipster Bump. Even though hipsters try to be counter-culture / anti-materialism, everything hipster is more expensive. Food trucks are a great example of this as they are more expensive than regular brick and mortor restaurants, which makes no sense given that food trucks have very little fixed operating costs. The hipster bump can also be observed in hipster clothing prices, and in Mexican Mezcal. Mezcal is the same as tequila but tequila is distilled 3 times, and Mezcal just 1 time. This would make one think that tequila would be more expensive. BUT, the hipster bump is in play as Mezcal is super hipster, THUS mezcal is actually more expensive despite being a less elaborated product. 

Pictures from the Food trucks:



Here´s some photos of my most recent eatings:
Chiles en Nogada. The sauce is sweet and it has cranberries on it. 


Celery, Pineapple, and Cactus Yogurt. I thought it was weird too, but tastes great. 

I also had the opportunity to eat grasshoppers, or chapulines.

And the close up...

These little guys were pretty expensive. The didn't taste bad, but they also didn't taste good. 

Other Mexican dishes:

Tasajo Vaquero:

Tlayuda: pretty much a Mexican pizza. Swap tomato sauce for bean spread.

And, some of the stuff I've been whipping up at home. Mostly bean based, haha.

 

Gringo Pro Tip #1 (GPT): Don't freak out if your poop turns black if you are taking Pepto 
Bismal. It is a side affect and does not necessarily mean that you have upper GI tract 
internal bleeding as a Google Search would first suggest. 

P.S. I'm getting excited for Bull Fighting which starts up soon, and is right next to Cruz Azul Stadium. 

Bienvenido a México

Bienvenido a México. This blog will replace my previously ongoing blog http://leroyinargentina.blogspot.mx/ which has 141 entries and more than 3,000 views. The purpose of this blog is to document my experiences while in Mexico City this year. Here is my profile from the University of Washington website. 

First impressions about Mexico City:

1) Quality of Life: This is actually the third time I´ve been to Mexico City, and I have to say that I am pleasantly surprised. Before I would always stay in the downtown area which is crowded and gritty, but on this third trip I've discovered that the city is actually very liveable with lots of green spaces and nice neighborhoods. I was not really expecting that. I can also walk to work, which is amazing. The best part about Mexico City is the food, the people, and the cost. You can eat amazing food for super cheap, and everyone is really nice. They also don't stare at me or hassle me. They are just doing their thing. Not sure if you've been to Puerto Vallarta or Cabo, but you get constantly harassed there. Here it's not the case. Mexico City is a self-sufficient city that doesn't need tourists. 

2) Quality of Food:

Everyone said "Don't eat the street food!" Americans said it, Mexicans said it. Everyone said it. Up until now, I have had no problems with any of the street food that I have eaten. I'm trying not to get cocky, but so far so good (knock on wood). I accredit this to my previous trips to Mexico and Mexico City, which I believe have fortified my intestinal flora and given me the necessary resistance. Not eating street food in Mexico is like telling someone to go to a movie and telling them to keep their eyes closed. Street tacos are amazing. My current count is 33 tacos.

Tortas are amazing 

This actually wasn't amazing, but it looks good. 

Pozole was amazing

You really can't experience Mexico City without experiencing street food. 

3) Stereotypes

Stereotypes come from somewhere, and I couldn't resist taking this picture of 10 men pushing a broken down bus out of traffic. However, I will say that my Law Firm completely breaks the stereotypes about Mexican working hours. I was expecting soft 8 hour days. Rather, most people get in at 10 am and stay until about 10 pm or later. Yes, they take an hour or two for lunch, but they stay insanely late. I was not expecting that whatsoever.  

4) Teotihuacan

 Absolutely stunning Aztec ruins about 1 hour north of Mexico City. Take the green line north to Indios Verdes, then take the J exit and walk about 200 meters to the buses that say Piramides. Cost is $43 pesos per person and bus is about 70 minutes. Park entrance is $56 pesos. Bus ride passes through some extreme favelas in the north of the city that put Rio's favelas to shame. On the bus ride, a local musician played his guitar in exchange for tips. Ruins were amazing. 

 Lunch at the ruins with live music. 

5) Domingoeando

On Sundays you domingoear (to Sunday) with your friends or family. Popular places include parks like Chapulepec or plazas like Coyoacan. The number of vendors with balloons, cotton candy, ice cream, toys, and knick knacks is impressive. 

 6) What worries Mexicans?
I was suprised to read in the newspaper that the issue concerning most Mexicans isn't violence or the economy, it's corruption. Many Mexicans believe that there is money and an appropriate budget, but the implementation of that budget is not always efficient and by the time the money gets to its destination, it is not as much as it should have been. 

7) California Street

Yup, still taking California Street to walk to work. It's about a 30 minute walk. 

 8) Xochimilco
About 30 minutes by car (much longer by public transportation) is Xochimilco. It's a park where you rent boats with your family or friends, and gently float around on a Saturday or Sunday. Mariachi boats will come up and dock to your boat and will play for about 100 pesos per song. 

9) Rush Hour

Good luck at Rush Hour. You are on your own. On the metrobus, the front area is designated for women only, so the men duke it out at the back of the bus. During peak times, it is normal for 5 to 10 buses to pass you by as you simply cannot squeeze onto the bus. When you finally do squeeze on, you have to physically force your self on using whatever leverage you can from the door jam. People litterally body slam their way onto the back of the bus. If getting on the bus was difficult, getting off is no easier as there is a complete impasse of people between you and the door with no room to maneuver. I tried to take a picture to capture the chaos, but it doesn't even come close to doing it justice. 

10) Costs

Mexico is relatively cheap. The pesos is 12.5 to the dollar and the prices are roughly the following depending on how nice of a place you are at (in pesos):
Tacos: $5 - $39. $5 being the cheapest I´ve seen at 5 x 25 tacos. $39 being at the other end of the spectrum as the most expensive tacos I´ve seen in DF
Beer: $13 - $60.
Rent (USD): $350 - $800. I´m in the middle of the spectrum at $450
Gym (USD): $40 - $110. In the US, gyms are for everyone so the cost is driven down by volume. Think 24 Hour Fitness $30 memberships. In Mexico it´s a luxury, which drives up the price. The cheapest I´ve seen is USD$40 and it goes way up from there. I did, however, find a CrossFit gym for $65/ month, which I am going to sign up for. Given the normal buying power of the dollar, I expected to find gyms much cheaper than they are.
Taxis: Really cheap. A 15 minute ride is about $5 USD.

That´s it for now.