BREAD AND CIRCUS: MEXICO COMING APART AT THE SEAMS

By Juan Montoya
During this past week, Mexico has had an angsfest over the death of Televisa comedian and sitcom producer Roberto Gómez Bolaños, more commonly known by his pseudonyms Chespirito, El Chavo, and El Chapulin Colorado.
Bolaños was a Mexican screenwriter, actor, comedian, film director, television director, playwright, songwriter, and author. That his death caused such a fest of coverage is due mostly to the fact that he was a member of the Televisa stable of actors.

To be perfectly honest, Chespirito's brand of slapstick and soft vaudeville was not our cup of tea, but it fit in quite nicely into the the bulk of Televisa's standard programming – telenovelas and gossip shows.
The coverage of his death lasted from his Nov. 28 death until his burial Sunday when the funeral procession wound its way through the Mexican capital, Estadio Azteca, with a perfunctory pit stop at the Televisa studios. The coverage, no pun intended, was overkill of the worst sort.
Mariachis, people dressed as his comedy alter egos, and an outpouring of accolades from other Televisa actors under contract to the network headlined the ceremony.
For a brief weekend, the problems confronting the Mexican government were put on the back burner.
No one network dwelled on the assault on the Mexican presidential palace and setting fire to its gates by protesters demanding the government account for the 43 missing students who disappeared in Guerrero after they were handed by the police to a group of organized crime. Or their demands that Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto resign his office for his failure to stop the outrages by rouge members of the armed forces and police.
The government got good news this week that the "remesas," that is, the money sent by Mexicans to their relatives in Mexico have increased by more than 7 percent over 2013. It's difficult for us to decipher the numbers so let's just say that millions keep pouring into Mexico from its citizens in the United States. After oil an tourism, these funds made up the third financial leg on the Mexican economic stool.
That was just about the only silver lining facing Peña Nieto since the plummeting oil prices resulting from the glut on the world market helped in no small way by the increased production by "fracking" in the Southwest. It's doubtful that the increase of remesas can offset the plummeting revenues from an oil market that has seen a barrel of oil go down in price from near $100 to the $70 level on the world market.
Just before Chespirito died and caused the national attention to be diverted to the pomp and circumstance surrounding his demise, there were numerous questions surrounding the awarding of contracts to close relatives of the president for the multimillion rapid rail to be built between Queretaro and Mexico City. The barrage of criticism force Peña Nieto to cancel the award of the contracts and to order the project to be rebid.
Likewise, the revelations that his wife – a telenovela star – had bought a $7 million home in an exclusive part of Mexico City on her professional salary – did not convince anyone and she went on the air like a good trouper and said she was voluntarily selling the home, not because there was anything to the suspicious sale, but to satisfy the critics.
Not to be morbid, but Chespirito's death could not have come at a more propitious time for the beleaguered  Mexican president. In fact, some wags say that it was a triple whammy.
"Isn't it a shame that Mexico lost Chespirito, El Chapulin Colorado and El Chavo on the same day?" they quipped.
To the uninitiated, this question may seem innocent until you realize that these three alter egos were characters created by Bolaños for his Televisa shows. Even in death, Bolaños seems to continue to cause Mexicans to smile.
Peña Nieto's next diversion? How about Juan Diego and the Virgin of Guadalupe on December 12?