Mexico is facing an escalating political crisis amid growing fury over a mansion built for the presidential family and the disappearance and probable massacre of 43 student teachers.
The two apparently unrelated issues have fed the widespread perception that unbridled political corruption is the underlying cause of the country’s many problems – ranging from stunted economic growth to a breakdown of law and order that has left parts of the country at the mercy of murderous drug cartels.
“The drama of Mexico is about impunity,” said leading political commentator Jesús Silva Herzog. “This is not about the popularity or unpopularity of the president, that is irrelevant. It is about credibility and trust and, at its root, it is about legitimacy.”
Public demonstration
Thousands gathered in Mexico City yesterday ahead of what was expected to be the largest demonstration so far over the students’ forced disappearance by municipal police in collusion with a local drug gang in the southern city of Iguala.
Classmates of the missing students have spent the past week travelling the country in an effort to start unifying the diverse protest movement around clear goals for future change. Last night, three groups of students were due to lead separate marches to converge at the capital’s main plaza around nightfall.
“Beyond the lies of the government, we have the possibility to start moving an entire country towards change,” student Omar Garcia told MVS Radio yesterday morning.
Protests were also planned in other major Mexican cities and around the world.
Preparations for the march dominated social media in Mexico with Twitter users posting slogans such as “There will not be a mass grave big enough to shut us all up.”
Twitter was also abuzz with warnings that provocateurs could infiltrate the protest, fed by photographs of army vehicles filled with young people in civilian clothing.
A large, peaceful march in Mexico City on November 8th ended in violence with masked youths torching the wooden door of the ceremonial presidential palace. Many protesters claimed the assault was provoked and circulated photographs and videos showing alleged government agents who had participated in it but later slipped behind police lines.
While the focus of the protests is indignation over the government’s handling of the disappearance of the 43 students, there is also significant anger over its clumsy efforts to dismiss serious allegations of a conflict of interests involving President Enrique Pena Nieto himself.
Late on Tuesday night first lady Angélica Rivera attempted to mitigate the scandal over a multimillion-dollar minimalist white residence built to measure for her and Mr Pena Nieto in one of Mexico City’s most exclusive barrios.
The house is still owned by a subsidiary of a company with a long history of obtaining lucrative contracts from Mr Pena Nieto administrations, dating back to his term as governor of the state of Mexico.
In her address, Ms Rivera, a former Telenovela star, said she was going to sell her interests in the house , but vehemently insisted there had never been any strings attached.
“I don’t want this to continue to be a pretext for offending and defaming my family,” she said.
Ms Rivera said she had been paying for the house from the fruits of her labour earned during a 25-year-long career within TV giant Televisa that ended in 2010 with the payment of 88.6 million pesos (€5 million) and the transference of property of another luxurious residence that backs on to the mansion.
She said she had already paid about a third of the cost of the new home worth 54 million pesos (€3 million), in accordance with a contract signed with the company over eight years. She said she had met the company’s owner, who also happens to be a personal friend of the president, “like I meet many businessmen, professionals and artists”.
The first lady’s attempt to turn the page of the scandal was met with widespread scepticism. “There have always been rumours, but we have never before had documents that suggest that a president in office has participated in illegal operations,” commentator Silva Herzog said, adding that he expected the unanswered key question to further fuel public scepticism and anger. “This is the worst possible moment for a scandal of this kind.”
These attempts to shake off the suggestion of wrongdoing came after the president adopted a new combative stance in the face of intensifying protests triggered by the disappearance of the 43 students in the southern city of Iguala in September.
The disappearance of the students has sparked numerous demonstrations in many parts of the country. Over time the focus of the protests has moved from demands for their return alive, to disbelief at the government’s failure to crack down on widespread collusion between law enforcement agencies and drug Mafias.
The president had previously adopted a conciliatory tone, expressing sympathy for the victims' families and promising a full and thorough investigation, but on Tuesday he used a speech to denounce violent outbreaks in some of the numerous demonstrations in recent weeks. The violence, he said, "appears to respond to a general interest to destabilise and, above all, attack the national project that we are pushing forward". – (Guardian service)