By IPS Correspondents
MEXICO CITY, Apr 3 2007 (IPS)

Crowds of people flocked to the Mexican capital’s first artificial beach Tuesday – a stretch of bright white sand studded with palm trees and beach chairs, and with plenty of hot sunshine. At an elevation of 2,250 metres above sea level and more than 400 kilometres from the nearest coast, it is surrounded by a cement jungle and chronic smog.

The first of four beaches to be opened by the city government was flooded by several hundred visitors, mostly from middle and low income neighbourhoods. Most came in bathing suits, carrying beach balls, picnic baskets, all sorts of sound equipment, cameras and video cameras.

The city government decided to create these beaches to provide a novel recreational activity during what for Christians is Holy Week, when public offices and many private companies close down for the holidays.

The newly opened beach is located in a sports centre in the south of the capital, sandwiched between busy highways.

The “beach” is an area of 1,500 square metres filled with 170 tons of sand. Real palm trees, five collapsible swimming pools, water sprayers to create a moist breeze, and screens displaying films about the sea, complete the scenario.

“It’s great for people like us who can’t afford anything else. We’ll go as a family, relax, and at least imagine that we’re by the sea,” domestic employee Elena Izquierdo told IPS.

According to Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard, the beaches are intended to provide a service for people who cannot or do not wish to go to the seaside this season, a condition fulfilled by about one in 10 of the nine million people who live in the city, according to estimates.

Tourists were among the first visitors to the beach, especially Mexicans from other parts of the country who come to the capital during the holidays, to enjoy the high temperatures and bright sunshine in April and May.

Official statistics indicate that some 12 million tourists come to the capital every year, eight million of whom are Mexican nationals, and the rest foreigners. The visitors pour over four billion dollars a year into the city, benefiting some 800,000 people working in the tourism industry.

A poll of 400 local tourists carried out by the Tourism Ministry in 2006 found that 96.7 percent of interviewees would recommend visiting the city to their friends and relatives.

In the same poll, 76.3 percent of respondents said the hospitality afforded them by Mexico City residents was good.

When asked what they did not like about the city, 38.5 percent mentioned the heavy traffic, 15.2 percent the pollution, and 15.1 percent the lack of security. Nevertheless, 87.7 percent stated they would “definitely” return to the capital in the future.

Mayor Ebrard, of the leftist Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) which has governed the city since 1997, said that one of his main goals was to encourage local and international tourism and combat traffic and security problems.

In the capital and its neighbouring state of Mexico, which together form a conurbation of 20 million people, there are 3.5 million vehicles in circulation which are the main source of smog.

The authorities began to take formal measures against smog in the early 1980s, but every year 30,000 people die prematurely from diseases related to air pollution, and the city still has one of the highest air pollution rates in the world.

According to surveys carried out by the non-governmental Citizens’ Institute for the Study of Insecurity (INCESI), Mexico City also has some of the highest crime rates in Latin America: 20,368 victims and 32,572 crimes per 100,000 residents.

In spite of these problems, tourism is flourishing. Ninety percent of the 40,000 rooms offered by the city’s 600 hotels are occupied in holiday periods like Holy Week.

Many people are drawn by the historic areas and the ancient traditions of the city, which was built 600 years ago on a lakeland area populated by indigenous people with a highly developed culture. During the period of Spanish colonial domination it was one of the greatest urban centres in the Americas.

In Holy Week, one of the main attractions for visitors is the ritual that takes place in the Iztapalapa district, where the passion and death of Jesus Christ has been re-enacted since the 19th century.

Over 450 actors perform the Bible passages referring to Christ’s last hours, before an audience of more than two million people.

The Passion Play at Iztapalapa, a historical and densely populated neighbourhood in the Mexican capital, is the best attended in the world, and one of the most important Holy Week events in Latin America, where processions and penitential acts are commonly seen during these feast days.

Although the separation of Catholic Church and state is a feature of most Latin American countries, some days during Holy Week continue to be obligatory holidays in most of the region, especially Thursday and Friday, which commemorate the last supper, arrest and crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth.

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