Uncovering Mexico
Jeremy Schwartz is the Mexico correspondent for Cox Newspapers. He is based in Mexico City.What's on this page?
All the entries posted on November 30, 2007.
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Home > Uncovering Mexico > Archives > 2007 > November > 30
Friday, November 30, 2007
Green Dreams for hybrids in Mexico
President Felipe Calderon is trying to boost miserable sales of hybrid cars in Mexico, proposing this afternoon that all new hybrids be exempt from a stiff annual sales tax. Mexico City, one of the world’s most polluted cities, already has waived the tax on hybrids. Last year only 485 hybrids were sold in Mexico, compared to 143,000 in the first five months of this year in the United States.
Hybrid mania has yet to catch on in Mexico, despite the high cost of gas (nearly as much as consumers pay in Texas even though Mexico produces its own oil). Mexicans much prefer bulkier SUVs: in Mexico City last year 43,915 SUVs were sold, nearly 10,000 times as many as the 48 hybrids that were bought.
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When police become the kidnappers
Chalk this one up under unsettling Mexico City tales: Last night, members of the city’s judicial police, a detective unit under the city’s attorney general’s office, kidnapped three clubgoers and demanded a ransom from their parents. The night ended in a wild shootout without another group of Mexico City police, who tried to arrest the renegade officers.
According to Mexican media accounts, the saga began outside of the La Bipolar club in Coyoacan just down the street from the Cox office and a trendy spot owned by Mexican movie star Diego Luna (great cucumber martinis). The judicial police reportedly arrested the men, but instead of taking them to the station called their parents and demanded about $1,000 to keep their sons’ out of jail on trumped up marijuana charges.
One of the fathers alerted the SSP, the run-of-the-mill Mexico City police force, which descended on the drop-off point. Judicial police were waiting in a van with no plates and tried to escape when they realized the city police were on to them, sparking the shootout. The judicial police fled to their nearby headquarters, where their fellow cops poured outside, creating a human wall to keep the city police from arresting the alleged kidnappers. In the ensuing melee, one member of the judicial police was shot and killed and two others were wounded. One of the kidnapped clubgoers was also shot three times and is in the hospital. The other two were unharmed.
In the aftermath, we learn that 42 members of the judicial police have been arrested on charges ranging from extortion to robbery to homicide in the last nine months. The Mexico City mayor has pledged a new round of “confidence testing,” aimed at weeding out corrupt officers.
If there’s a silver lining in this tale, it’s that the SSP vigorously pursued the judiciales and in essence, did their jobs correctly. But the whole incident underscored what for many Mexico City residents is a daily mantra: don’t trust the police.