75,000 march in protest to tortilla prices in Mexico

SOME 75,000 unionists, farmers and leftists yesterday marched to protest price increases in basic foodstuffs like tortillas. This is seen as a direct challenge to the new president’s market-oriented economic policies blamed by some for widening the gulf between rich and poor.

Since taking office on December 1 after a disputed election, President Felipe Calderon has drawn his greatest criticism for failing to control the largest price spike in tortillas in decades. Tortillas are a staple of poor Mexicans’ diet.

The national uproar has put him in an uncomfortable position between the poor and some agribusiness industries hoping to profit from the surge in international corn prices, driven mostly by the sudden explosion of the US ethanol industry. A free-market advocate, Calderon has said he does not want to return to direct price controls enforced by many former Mexican presidents.

During the march, protesters carried one banner that read ‘‘Calderon stole the elections, and now he’s stealing the tortillas!’’ Others waved handfuls of the flat corn disks and chanted ‘‘Tortillas si, Pan no!’’ a play on the initials of Calderon’s National Action Party, the PAN, which also means ‘‘bread’’ in Spanish.

In a press statement, Calderon’s office said the president shares the protesters’ concerns and pledged to ‘‘continue taking all necessary actions to maintain price stability for basic goods and services, (and) punish all types of hoarding and speculation in the markets.’’