Street battle leaves victims; ambulantes pick sides as leader incarcerated for murder of Mexico City rival.

Maria Rosette, the leader of a group of street vendors in Mexico City's Historic Center, says she watched in horror as her husband was shot in the head while protecting her from armed attackers.

While her husband Jorge Ramirez died in a hospital bed hours afterwards, Rosette says she held his hand and listened to his last words: "Take care my little one. They wanted to kill you. But I didn't let them hurt you."

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The fatal bullets were fired during a brawl that involved more than 100 street traders, some allied to Rosette and others allied to rival market leader Alejandra Barrios. Evidence suggests the fight was part of a turf war between the two bosses. Rosette was supporting merchants who wanted to sell goods on Calle Bolivia, just one block away from Barrios' downtown office.

The competitive pressures and more regulation are driving street vendors into violent conflicts in the capital and other cities, analysts say. But Ramirez's killing may also reflect urban Mexico's chaotic and rapidly changing political and economic landscape. President Fox rose to power in 2000 with promises of more jobs and economic growth to the tune of 7% annually. However, the economy expanded just 0.9% in 2002 and actually shrunk in 2001, while unemployment hit a five-year high in July.

Many here feel their only options are to leave Mexico or labor in the informal economy. Since Fox took office, the number of unlicensed traders in the capital has increased by 12%, from 270,000 to 300,000, according to the local government. But the informal economy, which occupies perhaps half of Mexico's 40-million-person work force has become saturated.

Business organizations, whose members feel the pinch of unregulated street peddlers undercutting their prices, say violence like that which killed Ramirez arises as a consequence of the huge informal market. "This is what happens when there is no control and no regulation of these merchants and where they can work," said Cuauhtemoc Gonzalez, chief analyst at CEESP, a private sector think-tank funded by Mexico's Business Coordination Council.

BIG ILLICIT BUSINESS

Sidewalks in the nation's major cities are filled with vendors selling everything from corn on the cob to Versace perfume laid out on blankets and tables. Nearly all the vendors, or ambulantes, pay a daily fee, normally around 20 pesos (US$1.80), to a market leader who "protects" their interests.

Barrios was the most powerful such boss in Mexico City. Over the past 25 years, she had risen from selling fruit off a table to having more than 5,000 vendors paying dues to her organization, the Legitimate Civic and Commercial Association.

Now Barrios sits in a Mexico City jail, waiting to be tried for murder--a crime that could put her behind bars for 50 years. Rosette and her teenage son say they watched Barrios personally gun down Ramirez during the ruckus on Bolivia Street. Furthermore, police say they have video evidence of the shooting which also points to Barrios' guilt. But Barrios claims she is being framed and says she'll fight to clear her name.

"I'm innocent. Maria Rosette is lying," Barrios shouted at reporters after being arrested in a safe house in the neighboring State of Mexico. Barrios was set up so Rosette and other market leaders could move into her turf, said Alejandro Camacho, a spokesman for the Legitimate Civic and Commercial Association. "They want to break the association and take over the streets of its members," he said.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Evidence, including videotapes, showing how Rosette arranged the confrontation will be shown to the court, said Camacho. Furthermore, Camacho alleges that powerful politicians support Rosette, including federal Dep. Dolores Padierna, who until September was in charge of the Mexico City district where the Historic Center is located.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

POLITICAL CONNECTIONS

One of the main causes of the conflict between street vendors is the shifting political allegiances of market bosses, said Alfonso Hernandez, director of the government-subsidized Center for Studies of Tepito, a tough inner city neighborhood packed with 9,000 vendors. The Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) ruled Mexico for seven decades by incorporating all sectors of society into its power structure, and street vendors were no exception.

Barrios and other market leaders supported PRI political candidates, and their empires flourished relatively free from harassment by the authorities. But as the PRI's grip on power started to crumble, some leaders decided to change teams. Rosette said her organization--the Union of Merchants, Sons of the Coalition--switched support from the PRI to the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) in 1999, citing ideological reasons.

"The PRI forgot about social causes," said Rosette, sitting with her mother and teenage son in her office in an old tenement block. "We are leftists because we believe that we all have the same rights." Rosette and other market leaders present their groups as ideologically driven organizations that help the poor and downtrodden.

Camacho alleges that Rosette has been working with PRD Dep. Padierna since she was district chief from 2000-2003. Furthermore, Padierna's sister, Ana Maria, is herself a market leader collecting fees from street vendors, Camacho claimed.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

"Padierna has a lot of interests in the Historic Center and Rosette is her pawn," Camacho said.

Padierna declined requests to be interviewed for this article.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

But, while Rosette admits she has supported PRD candidates, she is critical of Mexico City's PRD mayor, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. Two days after her husband was killed, Rosette and members of her group carried Ramirez's coffin into the city's main square and tried to force their way it into Lopez Obrador's office to show him the body. Rosette said the action was to pressure the mayor to administer justice. "There have been many martyrs gunned down in Mexico whose killers have gone free," she said. "I want to make sure my husband's killers will be punished."

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

SETTING UP A NEW SYSTEM

Lopez Obrador is working with billionaire telecom magnate Carlos Slim to revamp the capital's Historic Center and is barring vendors from certain streets in the process. As an alternative, he has suggested building new commercial centers where ambulantes can sell their goods in an effort to incorporate them into the tax system.

"Lopez Obrador works from behind a desk. He doesn't know the reality on the street," said Rosette.

Business lobbies are putting pressure on the local government to formalize street vendors' activities and some even favor using market boss' own institutions to bring money into city coffers.

"These market leaders have created a system whereby they can effectively tax the vendors. That tax needs to be directed to the city government," said Gonzalez of the CEESP. Some street vendors say they would happily pay a special vendor tax if there were a quick and easy way to do so.

"I think it's a good idea. I would rather pay my 20 pesos to the government than to Barrios," said a street vendor who called himself Delhi the Wizard. "But if I don't pay her, I can't work here."

Delhi has been selling magic tricks on a Mexico City sidewalk for 65 years, long before Barrios or Rosette came along. He can make 500 pesos (US$46) on a good day and said he would gladly contribute some of his earnings to the government.

However, even if some vendors back the mayor's proposals, analysts say the powerful market organizations could be a difficult animal for any politician to tame. Walking down Lazaro Cardenas Avenue in the heart of Mexico City, one can see large banners set up by street vendors proclaiming "Alejandra is innocent" and "Alejandra, we are with you until the end."

While Barrios sits behind bars, she still commands a powerful influence on the street, said Tepito merchant Marco Antonio. "Barrios is still a big boss around here. People don't believe she is going to stay in prison for long," he said.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Attempts by authorities to evict street vendors often end in pitched battles on the sidewalks. Vendors have pelted police officers looking for pirated goods with sticks, stones and bottles on several occasions in 2003.

"Lopez Obrador and Slim must understand the reality," said Hernandez of the Center for Studies of Tepito. "When they go into the Historic Center, they are confronting a never-ending social labyrinth."

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Ioan Grillo is a Mexico City-based freelance writer.