Uber: Case Study in Mexican Cronyism

On Monday May 25th, a bunch of taxis blocked one of the financial districts (Santa Fe) with their taxis in protest of Uber. I have seen this type of protesting before in Latin America. In Buenos Aires, the bus drivers protested by parking all of their buses end to end on the main avenue of the city effectively bringing the city to a grinding halt. I guess the idea is that if I am annoying enough, piss enough people off and cripple commerce, politicians will listen to me. The traffic in Mexico City was devastating on Monday and many people abandoned their cars on the road to walk to work as there was simply no movement. Two Fulbrights experienced this first hand.


To me it seems like a terrible strategy. By performing a stunt like this, you are assured that public opinion will be against you. The protesters did the same thing after the 43 disappeared students. I am very sympathetic to that cause, but if you trap me on the freeway for hours, well screw you. Anyway, that's what the taxi drivers did to protest Uber. According to the taxi drivers, Uber is unfair because they provide a more convenient, more efficient, more reliable, cheaper, and safer alternative to taxis, which is... well... unfair. To be fair, the Mexico City taxis that are licensed (about 30,000 are not and are so called "illegal" taxis), pay about $400 per year in taxes and licenses. Uber offered to pay this amount per taxi, but the taxis declared that was unaccepted and that Uber is illegal and unregulated. Uber offered to be regulated, but the taxis prefer to deny Uber a seat at the table because it is simply a much better product and they know they can't compete.

Uber has made my life SO much easier in Mexico. Taxis are terrible for the following reasons:
1) They never have seatbelts
2) They never have change
3) They try to take you the long way and rip you off
4) There aren't enough and it's hard to find one
5) I have had two taxis break down on me. One on the freeway, and the other when I was on my way to a bus station and tight on time
6) At night, they try and screw you. On a Friday or Saturday night, they won't run their meters and try to charge you 6x what the metered rate would be
7) There is always the risk of express kidnappings in which the taxi driver temporarily kidnaps you and makes you take out the maximum amount at several ATMs.

Uber fixes all these problems. It is seriously so much better. That's what scares taxi drivers. And so they resort to these protests and they are going to use their political arm through their lobby to get politicians to outlaw it. The sad thing is that it is working. On May 27th, the Secretary of Transportation "resolved to combat the alleged illegality of drivers who offer their services through Uber rather than regulate them." It remains to see what this will mean exactly. In the meantime, Uber has advised its drivers to wear regular clothes and have passengers in the front seat so that they are less obvious. Taxi groups have also promised aggression against Uber drivers. I have had several drivers drive past my location and call me because they were afraid that the taxi drivers would see them pick me up.

I hope Uber stays in Mexico. It makes my life cheaper, safer, and more convenient. Uber had just arrived to Mexico City when I arrived in August, so if it leaves, my generation of Fulbright would be the only one to experience Uber in Mexico City. It's a damn shame and in my opinion a case study of Mexican cronyism.

Antonia & Jack

Photos from Jack and Antonia's visit to Mexico City. We started off with Xochilmilco, which is a river system about 1 hour south of Mexico City that has brightly colored boats to take you around. The Mexicans call it their Venice, but that is a big big stretch. 

Here we are in Coyoacan. Jack told us to "act natural."

Coyoacan market for some tostadas. Jack had a tostada de pata, which is pig foot. It looked horribly gelatinous and cartildgy, but he seemed to enjoy it. 

Outside of the Museo de Frida Kahlo

We took a cooking class that Fulbright paid for. Here Antonio is demonstrating how to properly fillet a chicken breast.

Here is our Master Chef, although to be honest his recipes were pretty lame. We made chicken stuffed with plantain and topped with mole, sopa azteca, and a mousse that ended up tasting like cheese.

Patrick Miller. This weird club in Mexico City where everyone stands around and watches other people dance mediocrely in break dance circles. Seriously, the worst break dancers I have ever seen. Not even break dancing actually. Just moving in rhythm. 

Museo Tamayo de Arte Moderno. There was only work from two artists. Pretty good. 

Jack smiling

Museum of Anthropology. Biggest museum ever. Way too overwhelming. 

Jack in the gift shop

Courtyard of the Anthropology Museum. It is truly an amazing building. The Mexican government does a good job investing in certain things, but not in others. Another amazing thing is the Cineteca, a government theater that is beautiful and shows independent movies for $2.50. Meanwhile, the metro looks like no one has invested in it in about 30 years.

Diorama showing cannibalism. Museum was full of dioramas. 

Can't tell from here, but this altar was MASSIVE. Apparently, people were sacrificed in front of it. 

Perspective on altar. 

More museum.

Best piñata ever.

Paddling around in one of the beautiful green lakes of Chapultepec. We got one of the peddle boats. I think peddle boats are one of the least efficient forms of transportation possible. We were peddling our asses off, and making almost no forward progress.

Castillo de Chapultepec looking at Reforma.

At a posh bar before going to a house party. Another stunning smile from Jack.

Mexican Police Capture Leader of Juárez Cartel

Just a quick news update I found. I also found a thoughtful comment that someone wrote about it that I thought I would share. Don´t get freaked out.

MEXICO CITY — Mexican officials said Sunday that they had captured a leader of the Juárez Cartel, Jesús Salas Aguayo, the man in charge of the gang’s operations in Ciudad Juárez during a convulsion of violence that made the city one of the world’s most murderous.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/20/world/americas/mexican-police-capture-leader-of-juarez-cartel.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

The government cannot simply 'impose' itself on the regions where the cartel holds sway. Since the Zetas came into existence in the late 90's, Cartels now generally have a highly trained, well-equiped armed division, as well as divisions of sicarios (assassins) from the barrios. These 'soldiers', such as La Linea of the Juarez Cartel, carry out their operations like professionals, scouting targets for weeks beforehand, planning everything out and bribing whoever needs to be bribed to get it done. These guys are not the street gangs like the Barrio Aztecas - they're organised, efficient and difficult to find. They operate quitely, quickly and are well paid. Some say that moving the army into Juarez was a success, whilst a lot of others say the violence died down because the Sinaloans won, or a cease fire was agreed. Either way, the cartels continued their way irrespective of the Mexican government.
To understand the Drug War you have to understand Mexico's history in relation to drugs. Drugs, especially in Sinaloa and Juarez, and now across vast swathes of the country, are deeply embedded within the culture, politics and economics of society. The government at various levels have been involved and protected the drug industry for years. Plazas (or drug territory) were often assigned to drug bosses by police chiefs and mayors, and during the eighties the Guadalajara Cartel members enjoyed the protection of the DFS and various levels of government. Now, in more modern times, it is even more imbedded. Corruption is Mexico is rife. The municipal police are notriously corrupt. In Juarez they were well known as another armed division of the Juarez cartel (in an interesting piece of narco-propaganda, the Sinaloa cartel would leave a list of police they were going to kill put on the Monument to Fallen Police in Juarez), and the chief of police of Juarez was once arrested smuggling drugs for the cartel (2007, 2008). The municipal police was cleaned up and disbanded in 2008 when the Federal Government got involved, but the point is clear - corruption, drugs and Mexico are so tangled together it's difficult to untangle them.
Reporters are murdered for reporting on narco activities, politicians who stand against them are murdered, policemen and women are 'lifted', rivals are killed, musicians singing narco corridos are shot down. The cartels are not just a drug organisation - they have sophisticated political arms that control how they are seen, how they are heard and what their image is. They entice in young men with promises of trucks, cars and money in a world where the average wage in maquiladores (free trade zone factories) is as low as $40 a week, something which can be tied to the 'wonders' of NAFTA and free trade in general, and the young men come running. Los Ninis (kids not in school or work) are targeted by gangs and cartels. They offer them regular work and pay where the state and society offers them nothing. For some, the Cartel is the best there is - and that's a social issue that needs addressing. As long as becoming a sicario for the Artist Assassins is easier than going to school this will continue.
KidGavilan- Reddit

Tepoztlan

After a few days in Mexico City doing the essentials- Chapultepec, Reforma, Centro Historico, Lucha Libre, Zócalo, Palacio Nacional; my dad and I headed about an hour south of Mexico City on a bus to Tepotzlan. Tepotzlan is a Pueblo Mágico (magic village) known for it´s homeopathic treatments and remedies like stone massages, sweat lodges, and general overall spiritualness. The town is tucked in between these gnarly mountains. 

Cue gnarly mountain picture:

We arrived on Palm Sunday, so everyone was in the main square in front of the church with woven palm leaves. I guess I had never really understood why it was palm Sunday before. Makes sense. 

The main attraction in Tepotzlan is a pyramid constructed on top of a mountain. Being the studs we are, my dad and I thought we would have no problem hiking up said mountain. The hike started off with proper steps, but shortly the steps gave way to rocks that sort of functioned as steps. The hike was literally straight up the side of a mountain. 

The hike was kind of like being in an Indiana Jones movie. The jungle we were hiking through was very lush. But crap was it hard. 

Quick breather

The very last part was this insanely steep cut-back trail with no handrails in between a canyon. 

Finally made it. One of us had to replace our shirts due to sweat. Not saying who.

On the top there were these crazy little animals that were super cute, but there were a billion signs saying not to feed them. 

View from the top back down at the city of Tepotzlan.

We hiked back down and joined some of my friends that also happened to be in Tepotzlan for some Micheladas and bongo music in a roof top bar. Then we headed to Taxco. 

Taxco

Dad came down to visit for 5 days and we decided to take a trip to the old silver mining town of Taxco, Guerrero. The town was a bit of a time capsule as the most popular car was by far the VW Bug. In this picture I captured a red, blue, green, and white one. 

All the taxis in Taxco were white bugs. Mexico City used to be like this with green taxis, so our thought is they must have sold a bunch to Taxco after they started phasing them out. 

Imitation Christ the Redeemer statue in Taxco. This statue is only about 15 years old leaving very little doubt as to which came first. I copied what everyone does in Rio. 

This was our amazing hotel. Hotel Los Arcos. $60/night. 

The little bug that could. These streets were amazingly narrow and steep, but somehow the bugs could make it up with their tiny 1300 cc engine. 

The typical streets in Taxco. It was like being in the Alfama neighborhood of Lisbon. 

http://www.leroyinargentina.blogspot.mx/2012/08/lisboa-portugal.html

Lisbon:

Taxco:

Just some guy walking through the plaza with his donkey. 

Dad getting a $1.00 shoe shine. Lasted about 10 minutes.

Main church in the Zócalo

More hotel shots

View up to see the Christ statue

The rigourous hike up to the Christ statue with a local dog giving zero shits.

Keep hiking up to the Christ statue. No hand rails, naturally.