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Resort town is bracing for mayhem this week

Dane Schiller
September 09, 2003

http://news.mysanantonio.com/story.cfm?xla=saen&#xlb=180&#xlc=1052165

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CANCUN, Mexico — As European tourists made their way along the boardwalk above Playa Delfines, Spanish for Dolphins Beach, they weren't scanning the turquoise water for pointy noses or flippers. They were gawking at two warships sitting offshore.

This Caribbean resort is preparing for a siege, as the Mexican navy guards the sea, police patrol roadways and soldiers in civilian clothes erect towering fences to control expected crowds.

Cancun, the king of Mexican getaways, is bracing for the attention of a five-day World Trade Organization conference, which starts Wednesday.

It also is getting ready for the mayhem and civil disobedience that may come with it.

"They say people will be angry," Portuguese tourist and banker Rui Pintu, 38 said as he stood on the boardwalk.

Pintu took a matter-of-fact attitude but said his tour group's trip on a glass-bottom boat was canceled because civilian boats were banned from the area.

As about 4,700 official delegates arrive from 146 countries, thousands of activists from as far away as Korea, South Africa and Germany are digging in.

They vow to camp in the sand and march in the streets to draw attention to their concerns that the WTO runs roughshod over the environment and poor countries.

Their first march is set for Wednesday when the conference opens and when Mexican President Vicente Fox tentatively is scheduled to address delegates.

And in a post-9-11 world, authorities are on heightened alert for terrorists. Tourists have been advised not to go anywhere without a photo ID.

The center of the action here looks to be an oceanfront strip home to resort hotels and Cancun's convention center, which is serving as headquarters for the WTO gathering.

Barricades and checkpoints have been set up at both ends of the hotel zone, and federal police are guarding bridges and sidewalks.

As some workers painted curbs and walls and patched potholes to give the tourism zone a fresher look for visitors, others poured cement blocks to be used to reinforce security fences.

Protestors said they won't initiate violence but also won't be deterred.

"We are going to march, and we are going to enter; if the government will not let us in, it will be the government's problem," said Rafael Alegria, spokesman for Via Campesina, a nationwide peasant's group camping in the center of town, about six miles from WTO events.

"We are a pacifist group, but that will not stop us from protesting — they are the violent ones," he said of police.

The Zapatistas, a Chiapas-based rebel group best known internationally for its ski-masked, pipe-smoking leader Subcomandate Marcos, also is said to have a delegation on the way.

Activist Elizabeth Bennett, originally from Michigan, smiled at the prospect of authorities battening down the hatches.

"They think they are ready for us," said Bennett, who works for a Mexico-based nonprofit that educates Canadians and U.S. citizens about social conditions in Latin America.

"I say strength in numbers and in spirit; we are not here to have fun but to stand up for what is right. We are not scared."

She emphasized the demonstrators do not want violence but conceded there could be confusion should foreign demonstrators be confronted by Mexican authorities.

While Mexico's constitution prohibits foreigners from participating in political protests, Fernando Sada, the district chief of Mexico's immigration service, said they would be allowed to participate in nonviolent demonstrations.

"The authorities will give them the space and permits to demonstrate as pacifists," he said.

Sada denied the government had compiled a "watch list" of activists to keep an eye on— a list first reported by Reforma, a Mexico City daily newspaper.

But groups opposing the WTO reported the government was keeping tabs on them. They said fellow activists from 30 countries had been denied permits to enter the country.

Peter Rosset, co-director of Food First, an Oakland-based group, said he was detained and questioned by federal authorities when he arrived at the airport.

He said he was questioned about why he was in Mexico and what he would be doing during the WTO meeting but later was released.

Rosset said marchers would be taking extra steps to ensure their safety and cut down the chances for violent confrontations.

He noted marchers would be supported by first-aid crews, lawyers and security details aimed at detecting outside infiltrators who may try to engage them and give police an excuse to use force.

Federico Estevez, a Mexico City political scientist, said he expected heated demonstrations, but that due to international attention and involvement of foreigners, authorities would be better off containing demonstrations than using a heavy hand.

"As long as you throw enough security forces at it, the place is relatively easy to defend," he said of Cancun's hotel district. "There is no way they want 100 foreign protestors in a Mexican jail and to live to tell about it."