COATZACOALCOS MEXICO, WORKING IN THE LAND OF THE AZTEC 1997 – PART II

My mind has wandered back to the year 1997, in Coatzacoalcos, Mexico. It is now winter, January, and I am back, after a Christmas break. The biggest task left, is to negotiate a contract for the land, (read swamp). This negotiation is now between myself and the fertilizer plant. Of course, the useless piece of swamp that they are offering to us, is now a thing of beauty, to them. Our position is that we will reclaim their crap land, make it usable and productive. At the end of our business life there, we will return to them, a very useable addition to their facility. The implication is that we would do this at no cost to them, and only pay a tiny rental fee for its use. Their position is that, their precious piece of swamp land, now has the value of an equivalent piece, in downtown New York. Of course, they want to value it as such. So, as is ever my life, we start out, just across a table, but a “few miles” apart in vision.

Our new found labour provider, Sale’ is deeply involved with me in the process of trying to find, a medium ground, so we can get things rolling. Time, now, is of the essence. We must thrash out a land agreement, so the real work can start. Of course, my client’s company, is chomping at the bit. They are ready, to unleash a flood of equipment and people on Mexico and me. You would be right, if you thought that my stress level was high. My usual “icy” calm is now melting, and I’m starting to cuss and throw things around, a little bit. At the same time, that, I am trying to get a land deal made, we are also starting to locate the equipment and materials, necessary to reclaim the swamp into something usable. As always, I am like, “the cork in the bottle”, and personally delaying, everyone’s progress.

Once again, I feel like I am losing great chunks of my life to stress. Not only that, but I’m also not at home where Deysi can calm me down and focus my efforts. I’m kinda spiralling out of control with self pity. However, having said that, I am making some money. My days are completely full (of problems). One disaster after another. I wear them like a shroud. I never, ever, did figure out how to proportion the load, and let others have some of the fun. It always seemed, like I tried to carry the whole weight of the world on my back. While in my mind, those around me had an easy ride. Even now, looking back, I still feel my stomach knot up and swear words bubble to my lips. I have to stifle them or they will just pour out. I write this paragraph to capture the essence of how I felt during these periods of work. Some day, I will be able to re-read them, and hopefully remember “the feel” of my work.

After, what seemed like months, but in reality was only days, we had arrived at a point where, I could budge them no farther. I felt, roundly taken advantage of, by them. Sale’ advised me that, we had gotten about everything out of them that we could. My client, in Canada, was eager to enter the agreement. They congratulated me on the negotiation. They did add, however, “that if I could have done it a bit faster, they wouldn’t be so far behind right then”. I know that, the land owners, were laughing behind my back. They were so happy to have, the gringo, bent over a barrel, while they imposed their will on me. All in all, I was the only one unhappy with the deal. I hated, hated feeling “abused” in a business deal. I hated being laughed at (I could feel their glee to the bottom of my core).

However, mine was not the final vote, so with three out of the four players happy we made a deal. My client was now the proud lease holder of the second most miserable piece of swamp that I ever visited (read the Nigeria story). Time to finalize the details. We had to formalize the lease agreement with their head office in Mexico City. We also had a lawyer, that handled our affairs, in Mexico City. So, we set up a meet with all of the parties, to thrash out a contract. Off I went to Mexico City. It was here that I learned a whole new level of intrigue, danger, and, in some ways, humor. As I write it down, it sounds somewhat unbelievable, but believe me, every word is as true as my memory allows. If possible, it was even worse than what my memory “throws up” at me after all these years. Here goes.

Over the years, it had came to pass, in Mexico, that a new, and innovative, cottage industry had developed. What it amounted to was groups of thugs, that would kidnap, local businessmen. They would hold them until a ransom was paid. Then they would, target another person. It might seem like a pretty straight forward business deal. I kidnap you, you pay me for my troubles, and I never have to find real work. The reasoning being, “after all, you have too much money, and I (we) have none”. Now comes the good stuff. Once you are kidnapped, and contact is made with your loved ones, the business end of it starts. Your people will then hire a “hostage consultant”, someone such as me, but with has a knowledge of “hostage” negotiation. They then, meet with the hostage takers, and hammer out a deal. Geezus, and I thought my job was stressful!

The deal would include, money and terms of release. The terms of release included any guarantees that could be reached, in order to prevent you from being kidnapped again. Makes sense right? After I heard this, I was like, “you are kidding me, right!”. Of course if the kidnappers, (they prefer to go by their professional title of “hostage takers”), captured someone, whose loved ones, didn’t particularly want them back. Then they had a disposal problem. I might seem like I’m making light of this situation, but believe me, it was as serious as a “heart attack”. So, this fact, added to the complications of doing business in Mexico. One thing it did do, though, was to keep you focused on your personal security.

It seemed like our lawyer, had recently been subjected to such a negotiation. It affected his work life, enormously. As a part of his personal negotiation, it was stipulated that as long as he was outside of Mexico City, by 3:00pm each day, then he would be exempt, or immune, from further kidnapping. He just happened to live about 2 hours from downtown Mexico City, so at precisely 12:00 noon, each day, his ass was up, and out of his chair. With an Adios Amigo, he was gone home. As you can imagine, this made meetings very short and precise. All meetings, with him involved, happened between 9:00am and 11:30 each day. Now, I’m not saying, that it was all bad. It did make meetings short. However, the players in a latino business meeting, were just getting warmed up after 3 hours. They felt cheated out of half the fun.

“Why not call the police”, you might shriek with indignation”?. “Were they not trying to stop this crime”? Well, to speak the truth, it was a very popular held belief, that the very police responsible for investigating this crime, were also believed to be a big part of it. Many felt, that, some of them, were the hostage takers or, at least, being paid by the gangs. I am personally not sure, of whether or not, this was true, however, wiser people than me, insisted it was very true. Knowing that, made it very difficult to rest easy, while in Mexico City. My inherent paranoia, kept my radar up at all times. I was like a (big) Cuy, bobbing and weaving and darting my eyes around furtively. In a few days, we did arrive at a formal contract, that my client was happy with. Now back to Coatzacoalcos to get the ball rolling.

Before I leave Mexico City, I must say that I was captivated by it. The size, was overwhelming. The hustle and bustle, noise and flow of the seething mass of people, reminded me of Lima, Peru. The city drips with history. I remember my first flight across its skyline. The pilot announced that we were arriving in Mexico City, and then for 20 minutes we flew over this massive city (at about 300 miles/hour). I had no idea of what 17 million people looked like, in one place, until I flew over them. It was humbling to know, that, this one city contained about 2/3 of the population of all of Canada. Each and every time I flew into, or took off from, this city, I was awestruck. Second to Peru, it felt as if I was home, again. Who knows, in some past life, I probably was Latino.

Mexico City, in the days of the Aztec, and for centuries before, was the hub of what we now call Mexico. While there, I could imagine this city with all it’s glorious shrine, temples, moats and color. Even to this day, many of the significant places of the Aztec rule, are preserved. This, even though the Spanish conquerors tried to remove all signs of the Aztec culture, and replace them with the Catholic religion. Oh, what a different world it might have been, if a few of the Latino cultures had survived to now. It is my opinion, that the Inca, Mayan, and Aztec peoples (and others), were far ahead of the world when it came to technology, medicine, use of the environment, engineering and understanding the heavens. I see these cultures, as, at least equal, to the Egyptian civilization.

Needless to say, each and every time I visited this city, my free time was occupied by visiting any site that was within reach, to try and relive the glory days of the past. The city, that we now call Mexico City, was in the ancient times called Tenochtitlan, (perhaps prickly pear). It was built on an island, believed to be at least partially manmade, in the mid of a lake named Texcoco. The belief is that it was built mainly for defence purposes. The water level in the lake was controlled by dams and aqueducts, preventing floods and providing fresh water to some of the surrounding area. After the Spanish invasion, these dams were destroyed. Subsequently, the lake, then flooded, and so, the Spanish then had it drained. This resulted in Mexico City, as we know it today, being built in the dry lake bed. Oh, if I could have seen it in all it’s glory.

As is often the case, when writing my stories, I get lost in my thoughts, and often ramble on. I find, that this time, I have done the same. So, I will wrap up this session now. What I think was to be a “two part” series on my memories of Mexico, will now require another writing to completely purge my mind. Join me in a few days, to learn more of the exciting times of JimboRed in the land of the Aztec. I just bet you can hardly wait!