Oh, Mexico
Trip Start
Jan 15, 2006
1
52
Trip End
Sep 05, 2006
Oaxaca, Mexico
Saturday, July 1, 2006
Getting into Mexico turned out to be our worst border crossing. Our first pass was fairly uneventful, but we hit a roadblock at 70 miles out of town. The cop asked for a document that we didn't have and made us return to the border to get it. The document office closed at 3PM and we arrived back at the border at 2:55. The attending bureaucrat told me to come back tomorrow. I had a momentary vision of trying to find some flophouse in this dusty border town and redoubled my pleading. Evidently this woman has a soft spot for whiny gringos as she agreed to stay late to process my documents.
Speaking of government institutions, the entire oil industry in Mexico is owned by a single company. Pemex is run by an unholy alliance of government bureaucrats, trade unions and corrupt managers. The business decisions can be quite amusing. For example, one modest sized city had a total of three gas stations that all were located within 200 meters at one edge of town. I can only assume that the manager decided it would be easier to monitor 3 stations if they were contiguous. Brilliant.
Petty corruption is rife at Pemex stations. Frequently, a young relative of the manager stands outside of the door to the restrooms and demands a small payment to enter. (In his defense, he does provide 'vital' services such as letting patrons know if the loo is already occupied. They clearly don't spend much time on cleaning.) At one station, the gas pump had been altered and we were charged enough to fill my tank twice. Since there was a number of shady characters laying about, I just paid and got back in the car.
Oaxaca is a beautiful city with art galleries, wonderful restaurants that serve high-end Mexican food and an interesting museum. Fortunately, for this heat-challenged northerner, the town is at 5000 feet and actually relatively temperate. Usually, I would strongly recommend a visit.
Unfortunately, the local teachers union is upset with their renumeration and called a strike in late May. Since the school year was almost over, the teachers decided to occupy about 10 square blocks of central Oaxaca, including the hotel we were hoping to patronize. The streets were barricaded with pieces of debris that reminded of the Paris Commune. The local governor seemed to have the same idea as he ordered the local gendarmes to storm the fortifications with tear gas. This seems to have backfired as the protesters claimed that there were a couple of deaths from police brutality. (The rank and file protesters did not seem troubled by the fact that their leaders were never able to produce the victims' bodies or even their names.) Many of the protesters are calling for a violent ouster of the governor. We were also surprised to see that the local communist party was there aggressively selling the virtues of Marxism and Leninism. (I assume it is easier to ignore history if you have never read it.)
Judging by the stridency of the protesters, the political dialogue is far more fractured in Mexico than it is in the USA. While many of us may have strong feelings about our current president (or former one, for that matter) few of us would advocate the sort of violent solutions that were being casually discussed by the protesters. This does not bode well for the upcoming election.
Comments
Back in the US of A?
all right, you've got two and a half weeks to make it to upstate NY...start hauling. The beers are plentiful along the entire route. We can't wait to see you!