Governor Aguirre Meets today with Tourism Czarina

(Chilpancingo, AN 4 April) Ángel Aguirre will meet with Gloria Guevara, the National Secretary of Tourism, today in her offices in Mexico City. All over Acapulco, on streets, building fronts, at the beaches and even on the buses, one can read black and white signs with big letters saying “Gloria Guevara: Return the Tianguis Turístico to Acapulco.” The Governor said that in his meeting with the Sectur chief he will maintain the same position: “The Tianguis belongs to Acapulco, and no government official can or should take it away.”

(The Tianguis Turístico is an annual tourism industry convention created in Acapulco in 1976. Each year thousands of visitors and tourism professionals come for the event.)

Acapulco mayor and unsuccessful PRI candidate for governor, Manuel Añorve Baños, was not invited to the meeting, according to sources in the office of the Tourism Secretary. He has been vocal in his criticism of her. In Acapulco, Ms. Guevara was branded “Public Enemy Number One” when she announced her decision to move the annual tourism fair from the port city.

Members of the tourism sector expressed hope and optimism that Ms. Guevara's meeting with the Governor will result in a reversal of the decision to make the Tianguis an “itinerant” event, which moves from place to place. “The city, so badly battered by the image of gang violence, really cannot lose any more support,” said one representative. “We just have to think positive, that everything will come out all right.”

In his press interview, Aguirre also said that next week he will meet with the opponents of the La Parota Dam Project to try to understand their objections. The project promises such benefits in terms of jobs, economic development and abundant hydroelectric energy that the opponents have a seemingly impossible task to prevent it from going forward.