Anonymous - 10-28-2003 at 04:24 PM
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/morgan/20031022-999...
Neil Morgan
October 22, 2003
Tijuana protests alleging corruption involving Tijuana's mayor, Jes?s Gonz?lez Reyes, are drawing media coverage across Mexico and bringing offers of
assistance from similar groups in other cities.
Ascan Lutteroth, the Tijuana industrialist who heads the newly formed Citizens Council, says more Tijuanans are joining every day. Alberto Capella, a
prominent corporate attorney, has joined, Lutteroth says, "as our citizen prosecutor."
Mayor Gonz?lez has responded by creating a bonanza for Tijuana media, daring the Citizens Council to produce legal "proof or shut up," and saying he
refuses "to go in the ring" with the group. He has denied all allegations.
"We have proof," Lutteroth says. "We will present it. But we also have a right to inspect the public city files he refuses to open."
Lutteroth has become a listening post for protest. In Mexicali, Baja's capital, he says a businessmen's council has come forward with issues involving
the Baja state government under Gov. Eugenio Elorduy Walther.
The Tijuana council has received offers of assistance from three national nonprofit groups working for more transparency in local government. They are
called Vertebra, Transparencia Mexicana and Atlal.
Lutteroth also has been in contact with CIDE, a Mexico City university that is offering, for the first time in Mexico, postgraduate studies in local
government transparency.
"This is an old, old battle," says Tijuana businessman Hector Lutteroth, a former congressman and deputy mayor. "My son's Citizens Council brings rich
and poor together to demand fairness for the people. Mexico is finally learning about democracy."