Mexico City Government

A close associate of the capital's mayor was stripped of his congressional immunity Thursday for allegedly taking bribes -- but not before accusing federal legislators of a double standard, hinting that many had done the same thing.

Thirty years have passed, but Salvador Martinez della Rocca recalls Mexico's 1968 student revolt with Kodachrome clarity. The heady anti-government marches. The sit-ins. His imprisonment, weeks before security forces shot to death hundreds of screaming protesters and crushed the movement. With pride, he declares: "We were enemies of the state." Today, Martinez della Rocca is the state.

Marcelo Ebrard has turned this balmy city into an ice skaters' wonderland. He's conjured sandy beaches far from the sea. He's made hordes of annoying hawkers vanish from the historic main plaza. In nearly two years as mayor of Mexico's capital, Ebrard has shown a bent for splashy initiatives to ease the strains of daily life in a huge and unruly city.

The swank Sheraton Maria Isabel Hotel aspires to be many things, but a symbol of U.S. imperialism is not one of them. But such has been the case since Feb. 3, when staff at the U.S.-owned hotel just across from the American Embassy politely suggested that 16 visiting Cuban officials check out. The reason: U.S. Treasury officials had told the Sheraton's owner, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, of White Plains, N.Y., that taking money from the guests from Cuba violated the 4-decade-old U.S.

Sportswriters would be able to retire much earlier if they got a dollar every time an athlete questioned their credentials, pointing out they have never played the game. Then there are the coaches. According to a recent Dallas Morning News survey, 12 of the 26 coaches in the NHL have never played at that level. "Coaching players in the '90s is very similar to coaching players in junior hockey in the '80s," Dallas Stars Coach Ken Hitchcock told the Morning News.

In the first move in an effort to speed the clearing of earthquake-damaged buildings from central Mexico City, private U.S. demolition experts used 140 pounds of explosives Saturday to bring down a teetering 12-story apartment house. The spectacular demolition ended what apparently was an intense debate within the Mexican government over whether to use explosives in its cleanup operations.

They used hypodermic syringes to spatter their blood on Mexico City's government buildings during protests. Two of them launched a hunger strike in a tent outside the National Human Rights Commission building, a protest that began Oct. 14 and now threatens to claim their lives.

Billionaire Carlos Slim and leading broadcaster Televisa are joining forces in a new low-cost airline as the government sells off Mexico's largest carriers and opens the industry to competition. Slim's investment unit, Sinca Inbursa, and Televisa said Monday they would each take a 25% stake in Vuela, the new airline. The other partners are El Salvador-based airline Grupo Taca and investment fund Discovery Americas I, in which former Mexican Finance Minister Pedro Aspe plays a leading role.

Take a vast, teeming megalopolis where the car is king, bicycle paths are few and motorists often seem determined to mow down anyone not tucked behind a steering wheel. Now try talking residents into pedaling to work every day to help the environment. That's the task facing Mexico City officials, who have parked hundreds of bikes in busy neighborhoods in hopes of getting people to avoid cars and instead bicycle to the office, class or a lunch date. The new project, called Ecobici, is modeled on bike-lending programs in such cities as Barcelona, Spain; Paris; and Copenhagen.

Rafael Caro Quintero, a prime suspect in the February murder of a U.S. drug agent in Mexico, was arrested Thursday by Costa Rican authorities in a raid on a luxurious hacienda near San Jose, U.S. officials announced. The early morning raid by a Costa Rican SWAT team relied on information developed by agents of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, which ranks Caro Quintero, 32, as "one of the most powerful and feared Mexican drug traffickers," acting DEA Administrator John C. Lawn said.