| | |  Editorials | Issues | October 2008 
Marching Naked On the Nation's Capital
 Diego Cevallos - Inter Press Service
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| | Peasants belonging to the group 400 Pueblos, who fight for land rights for poor farmers, march naked in Mexico City in 2007. (AP | | |
Mexico City - Dozens of indigenous people walking naked along a main avenue in support of their demand for land, or thousands of stick-wielding teachers blocking main streets at rush hour, are almost daily occurrences in the Mexican capital.
On average, there are 250 demonstrations a month in the city. In the space of a year, an estimated 12 million people participate in protests in this sprawling metropolis with a population of 20 million.
The city government, in the hands of the leftwing Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) since 1997, refuses to interfere with "legitimate" social protests. The police must only act if there is violence, it says.
From January to September this year there were 2,261 demonstrations in Mexico City, 63 percent of which were protests against the administration of conservative President Felipe Calderón. The rest targeted the city government or private groups, according to reports from the capital's Secretariat (Ministry) of Government.
In 2007 there were 2,932 street marches. But not all of these were protests: nearly 500 were for religious, sporting or cultural reasons, according to reports obtained by IPS from city hall.
The Transport Secretariat (Ministry) at city hall publishes regular alerts about marches in progress, on its website and in the media, so that pedestrians and drivers can avoid areas blocked off by demonstrators.
Lawmakers and residents are demanding some form of regulation of these demonstrations, which cause a number of different problems. There are laws that impose sanctions on those who block main streets or avenues, but they are not enforced.
The city's Law of Civic Culture states that preventing or hampering the use of the public thoroughfare, free circulation of traffic, or the action of persons in any way, without permission or due cause, is a misdemeanour punishable by detention for 13 to 24 hours or a fine of between 56 and 100 dollars.
The law adds that due cause is understood to exist if the obstruction of roads or traffic is inevitable, necessary, and does not constitute an end in itself but is a reasonable means of expressing ideas, association or peaceful congregation.
Studies estimate that the marches cause average daily losses of eight million dollars and thousands of hours of work. The traffic chaos they create causes pollution levels to rise sharply because of the exhaust from cars stuck in traffic jams.
Some four million vehicles are in daily circulation in Mexico City.
Demonstrations are held mostly in the centre of the city, where most government offices and the city hall are located.
"The marches and 'plantones' (sit-ins, where demonstrators set up tents, usually in a public square) are valid forms of protest, but they have been repeated so often that they have become part of the scenery, and many achieve no result at all, other than making this already chaotic city even crazier," anthropologist Leonardo Fernández told IPS.
The marchers' causes vary, and include demands for better wages, education and jobs, as well as protests against soaring crime rates or specific decisions by the authorities and calls for justice to be done in a specific matter.
There are no studies indicating the extent to which protesters’ demands are met, but the demonstrations "continue without let-up, and no authority wishes to assume the cost of restricting them by means of some type of regulation so that they do not affect third parties," Fernández said.
Opposition lawmakers in the Mexico City legislative assembly, in which the PRD holds a majority of seats, announced in April that they were forming a front to push for regulations to control the protests.
The alliance is made up of President Calderón's National Action Party (PAN), the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), the Green Party (PVEM), and the small New Alliance and Alternative parties.
A communiqué issued by the parties said that regulation is urgently needed, because of the chaos and significant economic losses caused by the demonstrations. They stated clearly that it is not their intention to curb freedom of expression.
The opposition coalition proposes that marches can take place if they are authorised in advance and have timetables that do not coincide with rush hour. They also suggest that protests should not be allowed on fast roads or one-way streets.
But the mayor's office and PRD legislators say this is unnecessary, arguing that the Law of Civic Culture already deals with the issue. A municipal decree passed in 2001 says that marches are permitted as long as they do not obstruct the city's primary traffic arteries.
However, people who live in Mexico City know that blocking of major arteries at rush hour is a regular occurrence, and very seldom leads to any arrests.
The Paseo de la Reforma, for instance, a central avenue carrying some of the heaviest traffic in the city, is constantly being blocked.
Among those holding up the traffic on this avenue are 300 indigenous people from the state of Veracruz, who have staged an annual protest since the late 1980s. They camp out for two or three months at a time in a park near the Paseo de la Reforma.
The indigenous Movement of 400 Peoples want their lands back, which they say the authorities unjustly took away from them. Their protests have been unsuccessful, but they still regularly strip to the buff and block the avenue, while the police merely stand by looking on.
Thousands of public school teachers from the state of Morelos, adjacent to the capital, marched on Sept. 11 at rush hour through the city centre carrying sticks, causing traffic jams that stretched out for several kilometres.
No one was arrested; on the contrary, the teachers' representatives were received at the presidential offices, where their complaints were heard.
The demonstrators demanded salary increases, the dismissal of a trade union leader, and the reversal of a new government policy introduced by the Calderón administration which obliges teachers to sit academic tests and compete for teaching jobs.
"Excessive use of marches has meant that demonstrators now blend in with the urban landscape. Even the lengthy 'plantónes' by the 400 Peoples, who march in the nude along Paseo de la Reforma, has lost all power to scandalise or send any kind of message. I don't know anyone who knows why they strip," wrote Sergio Sarmiento, a columnist for the newspaper Reforma.
A survey by the Mitofsky International polling firm, which interviewed 400 people from different areas of the capital, found that one out of four respondents said they had been affected by at least one demonstration.
Another poll, by the newspaper Reforma, said the greatest wish of Mexico City residents in terms of urban policy is that the marches should be regulated. |
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