Cathedral to reopen today

With some gracious remarks directed toward the Federal District government and the PRD political party of Lopez Obrador, church officials announced that the Metropolitan Cathedral will reopen today after six days of closure. The government and the church agreed on a plan that will provide security for the cathedral without turning it into a "bunker," according to news reports.

La Jornada's account is here.

The Cathedral was ordered closed after a group of protesters burst in to demand that its bells be silenced. The ringing of those bells was apparently disrupting a big political rally outside--a rally called by Lopez Obrador, who continues to insist he is the rightful president of Mexico.

Lopez Obrador and his allies were relatively quick to disavow the disruption of religious services, although some also grumbled that the ringing of the bells may have been done on purpose, to disrupt their event or even to provoke an angry reaction that would make them look bad. Some even went so far as to suggest that the people who burst into the Cathedral were part of the whole plot to discredit them.

The whole episode was an interesting illustration of the delicate balance of power between church and state in Mexico. For much of its history, the Mexican church hierarchy allied itself with the powerful, wealthy rulers of the country, helping to crush rebellious priests like Miguel Hidalgo. The church also opposed the revolution that began in 1910 but this time found itself on the losing side. The government that emerged from the Revolution imposed stiff controls on the church to curb its power and influence--curbs stiff enough to provoke a bloody coda to the Revolution when devout Catholics rose up in an unsuccessful effort to try to overthrow the new regime.

Today, a lot of people left-of-center remain suspicious of the Church, but a lot of people are still devout Catholics. It appears that the PRD was not above stirring up the anti-Church sentiments of some of its followers, but was also leery of appearing to be too extreme in its anti-church stance.

For its part, church officials seemed to enjoy the opportunity to exploit the cathedral incident, but they stopped short of saying or doing anything that would have put them in direct opposition to Lopez Obrador and his followers.

The bottom line: after a lot of huffing and puffing, everything went back to normal.

FAW--Cars made in China

See previous post.

Maybe you already knew all about FAW but I did not. Now I know that the company has previously partnered with Toyota and VW on manufacturing in China.

The bare facts are available here.

Company website here.

Chinese-made cars in Mexico

Several Mexican newspapers are reporting today that Elektra, a Mexican retailer, has struck a deal to begin importing Chinese cars that will sell for five or ten percent less than comparable cars now available in Mexico. El Universal's version of the story is available here.

The cars will be on sale early in 2008, if all goes as planned. The Chinese manufacturer is First Automobile Works Group.

Perhaps most significant, FAW has pledged to build a factory to begin building its cars in Mexico (Michoacan state) three years from now. It's supposed to be a $150 million investment that will produce enough cars for the Mexican and Central American market.

Foreign investment in Mexico

Foreign investors appear to be discounting the political strife and the pipeline attacks that disrupted industrial production earlier this year.

The Mexican government reports in Milenio that foreign investment is up more than 30 percent this year. I was surprised to learn that barely 50 percent of this investment is from the U.S. The Netherlands is second with 12 percent; Spain third with about 10 percent, followed by France with nine percent.

Foreign investment is controversial in a lot of places, including the U.S. Remember the furor when a Dubai firm wanted to buy port facilities here?

But in Mexico, there is quite a bit of a tradition of isolationist nationalism that views all foreign investment, especially U.S. investment, as a threat to national sovereignty.

In a related story,
President Felipe Calderon met with a group of Lebanese business people--apparently Mexican citizens/residents-- and brushed aside that tradition, saying that Mexico's economic transformation requires lots of investment, foreign and domestic--not demagoguery. To encourage investment, Calderon said the government needs to provide security, legal certainty and clear regulations.

Smoking

It might surprise some people, but Mexico appears to be joining the worldwide movement to restrict smoking in workplaces, public transport and other public spaces. A legislative committee has approved what sounds like a fairly restrictive anti-smoking law that would appear to impose rather stiff fines on violators.

This committee appears to have representatives of the three major parties, all of whom voted in favor of the main features of this new law. The head of the committee said he is aware that a lot of Mexicans smoke, but nonsmokers have a right to a healthy environment.

Johns Hopkins reports that 32 percent of Mexican men and 16 percent of women are smokers. Read a full report from Johns Hopkins here.

I don't pretend to understand the Mexican lawmaking system but I assume that this committee approval is a significant step toward full legislative approval.

Cathedral controversy simmers down

The Federal District government and the Catholic archdiocese held closed-door talks aimed at reaching an accord on future security measures to prevent any more political incidents and intrusions into the religious precincts. W Radio has details.

Church officials seem to feel they have the upper hand in this. They want the government to agree to help track down the people responsible for Sunday's incident.

In other news, President Calderon reasserted his determination to defeat the nation's powerful drug cartels. He was speaking at a medal ceremony for members of the armed forces.

"We Mexicans continue to advance in this war against organized crime, until we see our country freed from the claws of criminals," he said. (my translation)

Read it here.

Conversation in the Cathedral II

As El Universal tells it, the Cathedral incident seems to be a perfect catalyst for a favorite Mexican pastime--conspiracy theories.

PRD officials are suggesting that the Cathedral bells were rung on purpose to provoke an angry response that would discredit AMLO's Sunday political meeting. They even go so far as to suggest that those who burst into the Cathedral may have been infiltrators, playing the role that had been assigned to them. One PRD official said he saw a "black hand" at work in the whole affair.

In any event it is clear that the PRD fears that the whole mess will damage its image.