Thread: 2010 Mexican bicentennial hits snags

2010 Mexican bicentennial hits snags

Updated 7m ago |
By Chris Hawley and Sergio Solache, USA TODAY

MEXICO CITY — The countdown has begun for Mexico's 2010 bicentennial, but efforts to celebrate with a massive public-works campaign are mired in problems.

Plans for a 70-story Bicentennial Tower in Mexico City have been scrapped because of earthquake fears. The Bicentennial Monument has been panned as ugly and out of place. A planned highway tour route of historical sites is so convoluted that it's nearly impossible to follow.

"Without the right coordination, (these projects) are not going to amount to much," said Alfredo Avila, a historian at the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

The disorder has been yet another blow to President Felipe Calderón, whose government has also struggled with Mexico's worst economic crisis in a decade and a bloody offensive against drug cartels.

Calderón officially kicked off the countdown to the Sept. 6, 2010, event with a shout of "Long live the bicentennial!" last week. To drum up excitement, runners are carrying an Olympic-style torch around the country. The government has run television ads urging, "It's a Mexican fiesta. Get ready!"

But of 618 bicentennial projects announced by the federal government in May, 151 are suspended or behind schedule, Reforma newspaper said this week after analyzing budget documents.

Some analysts question whether the estimated billions being spent might be better spent on programs to help those who have recently lost their jobs. "The (bicentennial) couldn't come at a worse time," said MarÃ*a Luisa Aspe, a history professor at Iberoamerican University.

Troubled projects include:

• A 12th subway line for Mexico City, touted as the Bicentennial Line. Construction is underway, but the city government owes the main contractor about $53 million in unpaid fees. Mayor Marcelo Ebrard says the project could take another year because of budget cuts. In June part of a tunnel collapsed, killing a worker.

• The Bicentennial Monument, a 340-foot-high tower with two parallel panels made out of quartz.

Among its many critics is Jacobo Zabludovsky, a syndicated newspaper columnist, who compared the design to a lollipop. "A modest suggestion: make it able to be taken apart," he wrote, "so that someday it can be moved out to … the countryside."

• A hydroelectric dam and power plant have been shelved because electricity demand has fallen because of the recession.

• The route of historical sites. The government has covered the country with hundreds of brown highway signs saying "2010 Route." But the route is actually six sub-routes and 22 sub-sub-routes. "They're everywhere. It doesn't make sense," said motorist Mario Cifuentes of Guanajuato state.

One consolation: At least the bicentennial has gone better, so far, than the centennial in 1910.

That year, then-dictator Porfirio DÃ*az decided to combine the centennial with his own 80th birthday celebration, disgusting many Mexicans who were already angry over disputed elections.

On Nov. 20, rebels launched the Mexican Revolution. The war and ensuing famine lasted 10 years and killed 1 million Mexicans, a sixth of the population.

Hawley is Latin America correspondent for USA TODAY and The Arizona Republic. Solache reports for the Republic.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2009 ... xico_N.htm

There's got to be a joke in there somewhere along the lines of "How many Mexican government officials does it take to put together a BiCentennial........?"

They should hire Americans to get this thing off the ground for them.....OURS was a raging success