100 DAYS IN THE CITY… NOT MUCH HAS CHANGED
After what seemed a very fast week, we saw several interesting developments, both in local news and in National (Mexican) news. For starters, here in San Luis Potosi, city governments started to tout their “100 Days”, that is, their first milestone after taking their oath of office; traditionally, these 100 Days are pretty much inertial work, as budgets in Mexican public offices tend to have both a yearly limit (December 31st) and an “administrative” limit, which is basically, the end of the previous administration.
Unfortunately, most municipalities usually start their administrations with no money in the bank and debts that their predecessors leave for them to take car of.
Unfortunately, most municipalities usually start their administrations with no money in the bank and debts that their predecessors leave for them to take car of, including swollen payrolls and numerous payments to make in the short run… recipes for disaster.
And all that was made worse, with a new federal government starting, rules changing, and all that… that is one of the reasons that the San Luis Potosi city government has seemed slow, after all, hypothetically, with a 3 billion peso yearly budget (approximately 158 million dollars) they are by far, the city with the most money, so they would have to have been the one with more results, which doesn’t seem to be the case, and the Mayor, Xavier Nava, has seemed to be squabbling with the previous Mayor, instead of starting basic maintenance work, like road and street repairs, working on a terrible water system, even changing public lighting.
Talking of which, turns out that the “Realito” dam, which supplies a full third of the water used in the metro area, has had several leaks in its 200 kilometer long supply line (125 miles); these leaks throw the public water company, INTERAPAS, into a deep rut, since they cannot make sure that almost 300 thousand people living in the southeastern sector of San Luis, (including a large part of the Industrial Zone), are supplied with water.
“El Realito” system is pretty much a time bomb for Mayor Nava.
The emergency water tank truck distribution system, is awfully insufficient and inefficient, so there have been increasingly more angry reactions from people that haven`t had water service for over a week. “El Realito” system is pretty much a time bomb for Mayor Nava.
In the state congress, things don’t seem that much better: turns out that our local legislators (deputies) were earning 120,000 pesos per month (some 6,300 US dollars)… here in Mexico, that’s a lot of money! Anyway, the new National Civil Service Income Law, states that no public servant of any level (Federal, State or Municipal), can make more than what President Lopez Obrador earns, which is 108,000 Mexican pesos (5,680 US dollars).
The new National Civil Service Income Law, states that no public servant of any level (Federal, State or Municipal), can make more than what President Lopez Obrador earns, which is 108,000 Mexican pesos (5,680 US dollars).
So they decided to lower their wages… all good? Nope… turns out that they really went for the minimum decrease possible, they got a lot more flak and the deputies just did not seem to happy about it.
At a national level, President Lopez Obrador started his “war” on fuel “pirates”, called “Huachicoleros”… the federal government estimates loses from this criminal activity, at around 60 billion pesos (a little bit over 3 billion dollars) a year. After a severe gasoline or petrol shortage in about 11 states (not San Luis Potosi, except for a few isolated incidents), with things simmering down somewhat, a terrible accident occurred, when a crowd of some 500 people were stealing fuel from a pipe that had been perforated by “huachicoleros” in the state of Hidalgo.
The crowd included several children, and even when the Army warned them to stay away, they disregarded the warnings and were basically in a kind of “picnic”, filling plastic jugs and cans with the leaking fuel, when something happened (the Federal D.A.’s office said that it was probably a static spark from polyester clothes) and a huge explosion ensued. 89 people were killed and over 70 suffered various degrees of burns… Now there is a national debate on whose responsibility it is, with the families of those dead and injured, demanding between 10 and 5 million pesos per person (520 to 260 thousand dollars).
This tragedy has undoubtedly hurt Lopez Obrador.
