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The word for "towel" in Spanish is "toalla," but lately Mexicans are quickly learning to pronounce "towel," as in "Towelgate," which is what the local press has dubbed the revelation that the government had purchased three "specially embroidered" towels at $443 each for the presidential residence, Los Pinos.
Ironically, it was no great feat of investigative reporting that allowed Mexico City's small-circulation daily El Milenio to come up last week with this bit of information on extravagant spending-which also included $17,000 remotely operated curtains and king-sized sheet sets costing more than $4,000 each.
It was just an unintended consequence of president Vicente Fox's pledge when he took office in December that he would ensure the utmost transparency for his government as he reined in government spending.
All that a reporter at El Milenio had to do was click on the Comptroller General's Internet site and there, for anybody to see, was a $400,000 list of household goods acquired by the president's office since Fox took power.
President Fox lost no time in announcing that he would get to the bottom of the matter. "For sure next week we'll let all you know that there will be several people fired in the government," Fox said.
One is known to have resigned, Carlos Rojas, Fox's chief administrative adviser who was in charge of all spending at Los Pinos. Rojas led fund-raising efforts during Fox's campaign and was one of the top aides who helped Fox select his cabinet before taking office. When the scandal erupted last week, he said nothing was wrong with the controversial purchases. "It is totally wrong to say that more than necessary was paid. On the contrary, we have tried to avoid unnecessary expenses," he said.
However, Fox's anti-corruption chief Francisco Barrio said at a news conference this week that irregularities were found in the purchases and that three other public officials have resigned and three have been suspended.
But there appears to be more that bad judgment involved in this episode. Barrios said a preliminary investigation had found several "irregularities" in the purchase of the items for the redecoration of the president's residence, even though didn't say whether the purchasing officials were duped by a company overcharging or were part of a kickback scheme. He also said he also would ask the Treasury Department to investigate MYO, the company that sold the towels and sheets, but he refused to say anything further about it, which lists the address and phone number of a house where residents say they know nothing about it, according to reporters from local newspapers.
This minor scandal is a reminder of how deeply rooted corruption is in Mexico and the hard task ahead for Fox in his efforts to do away with it. But he is having to deal now with another problem which is of his own making: his agreement with a U.S. Congress initiative that has pitted him and his government against the Mexicans who live in the United States and the organizations that advocate for their rights and welfare.
Even before presidents Fox and George W. Bush met last February in Mexico, a U.S. Congress delegation headed by Texas Republican Senator Phil Gramm met with Fox and on its return announced its would introduce a bill on "guest workers" the euphemistic name given to the "braceros" contracted in Mexico to pick up crops in the United States but under the obligation of returning to their country.
This planed legislation was officially well received in Mexico. Juan Hernandez, the minister for the defense of Mexicans abroad, a cabinet post created by Fox, said: "This is not only a safety valve for Mexico, but I believe people will be surprised of how much this would alleviate the problems at the border."
But the surprise was for Hernandez and the Mexican government. Virtually all the organizations that fight for Hispanic immigrants in the United States immediately condemned the proposed legislation and the Mexican government's support of it.
Typically, one of the leading advocacy organization, The National Council of La Raza voiced its "alarm" that Congress was about to move forward on legislation "that would harm the nation's farmworkers, the vast majority of whom are Hispanics." Actually, most of them are Mexicans.
La Raza pointed out that, "as wages and working conditions among American farmworkers continue to stagnate and decline, it is unthinkable for Congress to push legislation which would provide agricultural employers with an unlimited pool of vulnerable temporary workers . . . Promoting legislation that harms the most vulnerable Hispanic workers in the nation is an affront to all Hispanic Americans".
In briefings and press releases, La Raza and other organizations have taken to task the Fox government for supporting this legislation. This how a triangular conflict has developed involving the Mexican government, the U.S. Congress and the organizations that fight here for Hispanic immigrants.
Most of the Hispanics involved in this issue are Mexicans, who with their work here support their families back home, creating a thorny situation for President Fox to which he has not reacted yet.
Claudio Campuzano (claudio-campuzano@hotmail.com) is U.S, correspondent for the Latin American newsweekly Tiempos del Mundo and editorial page editor of the New York daily Noticias del Mundo. He writes weekly for World Tribune.com