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Protest City

By Jeremy Schwartz | Thursday, November 30, 2006, 02:18 PM

Think there are a lot of marches at the Texas Capitol? Austin’s got nothing on Mexico City, where officials say that during the past six years there were 2,229 protest marches, more than one per day. The study coincides with the presidential term of Vicente Fox, which officially ends Thursday night.

When he was elected, Fox seemingly had an answer for every woe facing Mexico. But judging by the number of protests, which were aimed at everything from substandard housing and electoral fraud to subsidies for dairy farmers and the demands of striking teachers, Fox didn’t solve many.

A whopping 11.5 million people participated in Mexico City protests, rallies, marches and caravans, not a bad percentage for a country of 107 million. In addition to the marches, there were almost 1,500 street closures due to protesters. The blockades have become such a part of daily life here that they are regularly included in the afternoon traffic reports.

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