Saboteurs at large in Mexico City’s metro network?
Mayor Claudia Scheinbaum’s approval rating has dropped by 4 points in the last month
Since the turn of the year, one person has died and scores more have been injured in “atypical events” on Mexico City’s metro network, opening debates about austerity and militarization in the country and damaging the reputation of presidential hopeful Claudia Scheinbaum Pardo.
On January 7th a train on Line 3 collided with another stationery train on the same line leading to the death of Yaretzi Adriana, an 18 year-old student, and injuries to at least 35 other passengers. The tragedy was not an isolated incident, however. In the subsequent days, a wagon of a moving train became detached, while there have been two separate fires in different parts of the network leading to evacuations and severe delays. Mexico City mayor Claudia Scheinbaum, with the backing of the president, has responded by deploying 6,000 officers of the Guardia Nacional (GN) into the metro, leading to protests both above and below ground against the ongoing militarization of the country.
Whilst AMLO, Mexico’s leftist, populist president, has often been able to lay the blame for today’s problems on the corruption and incompetence of previous administrations, it is harder for him to do so in this case; either he or one of his close allies has been the mayor of Mexico City for 16 of the last 22 years. In particular, these incidents looks to have damaged the reputation of mayor Scheinbaum, a vocal supporter of the president and one of the six “strengths of the party” that he himself has suggested should compete to succeed him as the candidate for his MORENA party in the presidential elections of 2024.
Mexico city’s underground train network, opened in 1969, carried 4.6 million passengers daily prior to the pandemic. After the New York City Subway, it serves more passengers than any other metro system in the western hemisphere. With 12 lines and 195 stations, the metro is essential to the economic life of one of the world's largest metropolises. And at 5 Mexican Pesos a ticket regardless of the length of the journey (£0.21 at the current exchange rate) it is not the cheapest public transport in the world (that prize goes to Cairo), but is far cheaper than the regional average.
An abundance of memes make light of overcrowding on the metro: “If I don’t make it back… tell my family I love them.”
These are not the first dangerous accidents to take place on the metro in recent times. Just days ago, mayor Claudia Scheinbaum rode on the newly reopened Line 12. Line 12 had closed 18 months earlier after two carriages fell from an overpass leaving 26 passengers dead and hundreds more injured. Having been constructed whilst Marcelo Ebrard, now AMLO’s chancellor, was the mayor of Mexico City, Line 12 initially cost 2.6 billion USD, but has been beset by problems from the beginning of its operational life due to poor construction and earthquake damage.
The metro network is ordinarily policed by the Policía de Tránsito Público. You won’t go to any station or platform without seeing these officers, often supported by Policía Auxiliar, blowing very loud whistles with a certain flair. Meanwhile, station officers are also on hand at busy times to remind people to stay behind the yellow line etc. In spite of the existing presence of security personnel in the metro system, Scheinbaum insists the deployment is necessary to “ensure the safety of passengers.” She has promised that there will be eight at least GN officers in every station as well as plainclothes, undercover officers travelling around the network. This has sparked renewed complaints from across civil society about the continued militarization of the country during AMLO’s sexenio.
An underground station on the newly reopened Line 12
Why would stationing more police on the underground lead to protests?
The Guardia Nacional (GN) is an officially civilian police force, formed in 2019, but staffed primarily by ex-military personnel, headed up by a former general of the Mexican Army and, as of last year, officially administrated by the Mexican Ministry of Defence (SEDENA). Whilst it is common to see groups of heavily armed GN officers in desert camouflage in many public places in Mexico, the GN deployed in the metro are not apparently armed and most are not wearing their desert fatigues. AMLO believes that the presence of the GN will help to make users feel safe to ride the metro, rather than developing “psychosis… [due to] worry about an accident on the subway.”
Nevertheless, as many have pointed out, a military force that has received twenty complaints of abuses of civilians per month during its brief existence will not help to make everyone feel safe on the metro. Events so far suggest that fears of abuse of power by the GN are not unfounded. Since the deployment, one student has been arrested for peacefully protesting about transport safety on Line 3. Meanwhile three men have been detained, in separate incidents, for the crime of “attacking communication routes” after accidentally dropping things onto the tracks. All have since been released without charge.
In response to the deployment, Amnesty International called for a march against militarization last Friday. AMLO’s rejoinder was to close roads that marches (such as that called by himself in November in support of his own administration) normally move along, and to put up hoardings around public buildings. This latter move appeared well-advised when protesters began to throw homemade explosives at the Palacio Nacional, AMLO’s presidential residence. He then used his 3-hour morning press conference to work himself up to the point where he claimed that those who oppose the deployment of the military/police on the metro “would like there to be accidents and wish harm on their neighbours because of their alienation, their conservatism, and their fanaticism.”
A national guard has a look around
Why put more police on the underground?
If the cause of these accidents was technical malfunction or human error, it is hard to see how putting more police on the platforms will help protect passengers from similar incidents. The mayor has insisted that the recent accidents represent “atypical situations” and are in no way a result of a lack of maintenance or staffing, but were “intentional.” She has declined to provide evidence of this claim, but has asked the attorney general’s office to investigate claims of sabotage.
The head of the Ministry of Defence, Luis Crescencio Sandoval, has declared that the recent accidents were not accidents at all, but “the work of human hands.” As evidence for this claim, he has mentioned a video of another train on the network that seems to have had some bolts removed. These bolts, he insisted, could only have been removed with specialist tools.
For an administration that has put infrastructure projects at the centre of its brand, endlessly promoting its work on new train lines and airports, might it be that the stain of mismanagement and chronic underfunding of the public transport network would simply be too politically damaging? Is austerity in Mexico beginning to bite?
An officer of the transport police checks his phone
There has been a percentage and real-terms reduction in the amount of maintenance work completed across the network. The public accounts of STC (Mexico City’s public transport body) show that in 2021 56.85% of maintenance work commissioned for the metro was carried out, down from 85.7% in 2019.
Meanwhile, the head of the National Union of Collective Transport Workers, Fernando Espino Arévalo, has insisted that the recent incidents are the result of technical faults. He has claimed that railworkers charged with maintaining the cars often lack the correct equipment to do so, and are thus forced to purchase with their own money the specialist tools needed to do their work.
Whilst no accusations have been levelled at the railworkers of having sabotaged the network, Espino Arévalo has felt compelled to head off any potential accusation by arguing that it would make little sense for railworkers to put themselves and their livelihoods at risk. If it were to transpire that some workers had taken the extraordinary step of sabotaging trains, perhaps in order to strengthen their hand in negotiations over pay or working conditions, this would (while abhorrent) surely be evidence of how desperately extra investment is needed.
The crisis represents in microcosm many of the dynamics or set-pieces in AMLO’s interactions with critics of the government. Promises and expectations are high, but money is tight. When things don’t go to plan, the military are called in to sort things out. Those who oppose the incremental spreading of the military into more and more areas of public life at the expense of well-run public services and civic institutions (victims of state violence, feminists, students, environmentalists, human rights groups, Amnesty International) are then accused by the president of politicking simply in order to thwart the agenda of his left-wing movement.
A member of the auxillary police reminds passengers not to push while getting on the train
While AMLO is trying to convince us that the only people who think that deploying the GN is a bad idea are right-wing fanatics, the government’s right-wing critics are certainly enjoying the moment. Locals may get used to overwhelming security presence on the metro network, as they have done in other aspects of life, but more disruption or injury will hurt the administration’s reputation in the capital. In the meantime, AMLO’s rhetoric continues to divide the progressive elements in society.
If it transpires that these events were the result of sabotage, the government will be vindicated. If no credible evidence of sabotage emerges, if and when the next accident occurs on the metro the stakes will be even higher for AMLO and Scheinbaum, and for Mexico.
