Dokument #1357484
IRB – Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (Autor)
A staff member of the presidency of the
municipal government of Texcoco in Mexico City stated during a 29
October 1997 telephone interview that there is a regular market
(tanguis) of agricultural produce that settles on or
around Manuel Gonzales Street, and that there are numerous areas of
the district where street vendors sell agricultural produce.
The information that follows was provided
during a 29 October 1997 telephone interview with a representative
of the Department of Economic Promotion of the Municipality of
Texcoco in Mexico City.
Since 1 January 1997 the Municipality of
Texcoco has been governed by the PRD (Party of the Democratic
Revolution); until then, the municipality had been governed by the
PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party).
There are a number of places in the
district of Texcoco where street vendors sell a range of products,
from smuggled or cheap electronic appliances (fayucos) to
local agricultural produce (productos de temporada). There
are many areas of the district where street vendors sell
agricultural produce; however, the main street vending area, which
has no officially demarcated boundaries or distribution of stalls,
is concentrated in the municipality's historic centre, particularly
around the San Antonio and Belisario Dominguez market buildings.
There are at least three associations or organizations of street
vendors in the district. The merchants who sell agricultural
produce every day do so from 5 a.m. to 11 a.m.; there is also a
weekly market (tanguis) on Mondays that occupies different
stalls, and has its own internal organization or association of
merchants.
For your reference, a 14 January 1997
La Jornada article in Spanish discusses the control of
street markets in Nezahualcoyotl, a municipality on the periphery
of the capital city, and contains a passing reference to Texcoco
Avenue (not to the municipality in the eastern side of the
capital). The article refers to the changes brought about by the
1996 elections as they affected the PRI caciques, or
feudal lords, of the municipality, who until then had made the
streets "their powerful source of income" (su poderosa fuente
de ingresos). The article reports that, according to the new
mayor of Nezahualcoyotl, a former PRI figure turned PRD
representative and then independent, caciquismo does not
exist, yet he admits that of the 70 market areas of his
municipality, the PRD controlled nine, while the rest were still
under the control of the PRI.
Information on the "disappearance" of a
Texcoco merchant called Carlos Morales at the hands of the Judicial
Police in 1996 could not be found among the sources consulted by
the Research Directorate.
This Response was prepared after
researching publicly accessible information currently available to
the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is
not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any
particular claim to refugee status or asylum.
References
La Jornada [Mexico City]. 14
January 1997. Alejandra Gudiño and Roberto Garduño.
"Caciques de Neza amenazan con hacer la 'vida de
cuadritos' al PRD." [Internet] http://serpiente.dgsca.unam.mx/jornada/
[Accessed 28 Oct. 1997]
Municipality of Texcoco, Mexico City. 29
October 1997. Telephone interview with municipal presidency
staff.
_____. 29 October 1997. Telephone
interview with Economic Promotion Department representative.
Additional Sources Consulted
Amnesty International Report.
Yearly.
Amnesty International Urgent
Actions. Irregular publication.
Country Reports on Human Rights
Practices for 1994. February 1995.
Foreign Broadcast Information Service
(FBIS) Daily Reports.
Human Rights Watch World
Report. Yearly.
Mexico NewsPak [Austin, Tx].
Fortnightly.
Material from the Indexed Media
Review (IMR) or country files containing articles and reports
from diverse sources (primarily dailies and periodicals) from the
Weekly Media Review.
Newspapers and periodicals pertaining to
the appropriate region.
Electronic sources: IRB databases,
Global NewsBank, NEXIS, Internet, REFWORLD (UNHCR database).
Note:
This list is not exhaustive.
Country-specific books available in the Resource Centre are not
included