Support Voiced in Mexico for Boycott of U.S. Firms

A national holiday emptied many of the capital’s normally crowded streets Monday, making it difficult to tally a planned boycott of U.S. products and businesses. But traditional May Day rallies gave many Mexicans a chance to voice support for their brethren north of the border.

“We gave our blood to build capitalism in North America,” said Fernando Vazquez Herrera, a former bracero, one of the millions of Mexicans recruited to the United States for farm work from the 1940s to the mid-1960s. “Over three decades we suffered and were exploited and mistreated.”

He spoke to several hundred people gathered in front of the U.S. Embassy here to support the boycott. Thousands more marched to the downtown square for the city’s annual labor rally, with many toting placards supporting legal recognition for the millions of Mexican immigrants in the United States.

Proposals in December by the U.S. House of Representatives to build 700 miles of border fencing and make illegal immigration a felony triggered weeks of headlines here and reopened old wounds over the treatment of Mexicans in the U.S. by their employers and the government.

An e-mail campaign last month that also spread via TV, newspapers and word of mouth urged Mexicans to keep away Monday from the Burger King, McDonald’s, Starbucks, Pizza Hut, Domino’s and Dunkin’ Donuts franchises that have sprung up throughout the country.

“It is the least that we [can do] for our co-citizens who are working in the USA and who are practically supporting our country with their work and the money they send home,” said one version of the e-mail titled “Mexicans of the World, UNITE!”

Mexicans working abroad sent home $20 billion last year, income second only to oil revenue.

But with schools, banks, government offices and many shops closed for May Day, it was difficult to tell whether business was slow through circumstance or design.

Eight delivery motorcycles were idle and four pizza workers had little to do during the usually busy lunch hour at the Domino’s a few blocks north of Chapultepec Park. Despite a two-for-one offer, the cashier said, business was dead.

At the Wal-Mart in San Pedro de los Pinos on the south side -- one of 31 Wal-Mart stores in the city -- cashier Carolina Ugalde stood in nearly empty aisles waiting for customers.

On Sunday, she said, the store had been packed. “It looked like Christmas Eve,” she said. Shoppers told her they didn’t want to come in Monday, out of respect for the boycott.

Schoolteacher Marco Antonio Rodriguez said he needed to shop at Wal-Mart on Monday because it was the only day he had free to buy food for the week. “But look,” he said pointing to a cart of tortillas, bread and juice, “I’m only buying Mexican products, not even Coca-Cola.”

Mexican President Vicente Fox, a former Coke executive, has toned down his criticism of the U.S. Congress after first calling the proposed border fence shameful. He hired Rob Allyn, a Texas PR man with close ties to President Bush, and decided that his administration would neither oppose nor support Monday’s boycott.

Fox’s remarks Sunday reflected his effort to lend support to Mexicans abroad without antagonizing Washington.

“To those who’ll express themselves,” he said, “do it prudently

Carlos Martinez and Cecilia Sanchez of The Times’ Mexico City Bureau contributed to this report.