Last Friday (June 21, 2008) a discotheque in the north-east of Mexico City was the scene of a horrific incident which took the lives of nine teenagers and three police officers. The discotheque, Divine News, was part of a police crackdown on underaged drinking and the sale of illegal drugs.
The police had knowingly picked a day when the discoteque would be packed with revellers celebrating the end of the school year. However, as with so many "operativos" (as the police action is known in Spanish), the motive behind the crackdown is part of a massive extortion racket that runs through the corridors of the local councils, the Mexico City government and the city police forces.
A combination of factors - a chronic ineptitude on behalf of the city police and a flagrant disregard for public safety by the discotheque's owners - precipitated last Friday's tragic occurrence.
When the owners got wind that the police were on their way they made an announcement to the 500 plus teenagers to leave the premises. At first they were reluctant to go but after being promised free entry to the club the following week they began to make their way out. However, it was too late for the majority of them as the police had cordoned off the area around the club and barricaded the entrance.
Unable to leave and with the club already packed beyond its legal limit, the teenagers began to panic. The police then made threats that anyone who attempted to leave would be immediately arrested. This exacerbated an already fraught situation and in the ensuing panic a stampede occurred which saw nine teenagers and three police officers die from asphyxiation. Mexican news agencies also reported that the emergency exit had been blocked by crates of beer.
Could this have been avoided? Certainly. The police and the owners of Divine News were embroiled in an all too familiar game of cat and mouse that plagues establishments of this nature. There is no doubt in my mind the local authorities knew all along how Divine News was operating. Politicians in Mexico come and go but local council bureaucrats have job security for life and they're the ones who make sure - if the price is right - your bar or club stays open irrespective if you meet safety requirements.
An operativo will occur in two scenarios: the bureaucrat wants more money or a genuine complaint has been made and the authorities have to act under the letter of the law which results in an even bigger bribe being paid to said bureaucrat. Add to this the sheer indiscipline and scare-mongering tactics employed by the local police forces and you have a recipe for disaster driven ultimately by greed.
It will be interesting to see how Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard responds to this incident. A news presenter of a popular morning tv show pointed out, "it's all very well having an ice skating rink in the Zocalo, or making government workers ride a bicycle to work once a month but if the mayor really wants to show his true grit then rooting out the endemic corruption that plagues the capital's local councils will be key."
My visa to work in Mexico was just approved the other day. Yes, it is great news! And I'm thrilled. There are a lot of questions and confusion out there about this process, though. So, I want to throw in my 2 cents and try to give another persceptive on the process.
Searching online for "mexico fm3" will yield a lot of tragic stories and exasperated accounts of the paper-trail nightmare that can be the process of getting an FM3 when you're already in Mexico. Obviously, the best game-plan is to finish processing the visa before you even get to Mexico, therefore avoiding all the translating and notarizing of foreign documents that is often required when beginning the process here on your own, but not all of us are so organized nor had any idea of where our paths would take us in this beautiful country.
Therefore, for those of you who are in a similar position, my recommendation is to hire a qualified lawyer. It was amazing how quickly and easily I was whisked through the whole process. I just collected a packet of papers from my employer about their tax records and proof of their status as an extant Mexican business and dropped them off with my passport. No translated, notarized copy of my university degrees necessary. No original birth certificate required.
All the cumbersome paper-shuffling that I dreaded having to endure from reading about the process online was not necessary at all.
For a reasonable 3000 pesos in lawyer's fees and another 2500 pesos in the cost of filing all the paperwork with the government, I was on my way to getting the coveted work visa. When the day came to dot the last i's and cross the last t's (only 3 weeks after I dropped off the papers with the lawyer), I was personally escorted around town with the lawyer to sign the last papers, take my headshots, pay the fees at the bank, and turn it all in to immigration.
We wasted no time due to the lawyer's guidance, zipping from one location to the next efficiently and often being escorted to the front of long lines. It was wonderful. No drama. No headaches. No wasted time. I highly recommend paying for a professional to help you out with this vital tool for working in Mexico legally. It will be worth every penny.
Last night we had the chance of meeting Bob Gruen, the renowned photographer who has documented the rock and roll exploits of some of the most famous acts of our time, from John Lennon in New York to Kiss to Led Zeplin. Now his most famous works are in Mexico City in the Auditorio Nacional in Polanco.
The exhibition is an amazing array of photos taken both in full on rock concerts to intimate moments with the stars who over the course of three decades have become Gruen's close friends.
This is really worth going to and I thought I'd let other expats living in Mexico City know about it so that they can check it out. It's on for the next few weeks until the end of May.
