Mexico: Illegal Taxis to be Licensed; Oaxaca Festival Postponed; Election Protests

By Larry Habegger | Permalink | No Comments | July 18th, 2006 | Trackback

Mexico City’s 20,000 unregistered taxis will be made legal over the next few months if transit authorities succeed in their efforts to license them. The illegal taxis carry roughly 15 percent of the city’s daily taxi passengers and officials acknowledge that they provide a necessary service. The 106,000 authorized cabs cannot handle the demand. Drivers have long complained that the number of taxi licenses granted by the city are too low. In other news, the governor of Oaxaca state suspended the Guelaguetza, an internationally-popular, weeklong cultural festival that was to have begun July 17. The event usually draws some 20,000 people, but the governor postponed it, blaming striking school teachers who have disrupted travel in the state since May 22, taken over parts of the central plaza in the city of Oaxaca and blocked entrances to popular hotels during demonstrations. In an ongoing crisis over the disputed presidential election, leftists intend to begin a campaign of “civil resistance” to try to force a manual recount of the ballots. Such resistance could mean demonstrations and rallies, which have the potential to become violent.

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