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Emergency exits at the straight Mexico City nightclub Lobohombo were locked when the electrical fire broke in October 2000, killing 21 people. For some politicians and real-estate interests, tragedy has transformed into opportunity. In the fire's aftermath, a left-wing city official has waged war on the Mexican capital's gay establishments-- shuttering some 40 percent of them since April, along with about four percent of the city's straight clubs. The city claims to be targeting businesses that are safety hazards and public nuisances. But the real reasons for the crackdown include greed and hostility to gays.

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Activists are fighting back with leafleting, candlelight marches, and special floats in June's gay pride parade. Some have even printed up their own "closed" stickers and put them on the doors of city government offices.

But for now, the war on nightspots-- unlicensed and otherwise-- continues. The foot soldiers are familiar to businesspeople the world over-- inspectors who show up and find code violations. But owners complain that they aren't given clear instructions on what to rectify, and repairs are made, only for more violations to be found. Some bars are shut without warning. Even bribes don't dissuade the inspectors-- unusual for Mexico. And closures are carried out sometimes with a full police complement-- in one case with 100 officers-- on Friday and Saturday nights, in a manner calculated to intimidate patrons.

Save our property values!

The bar-closings are being dictated from high in the city administration, in an effort in part to clear gay businesses, street youths, and other "undesirables" out of the fashionable, touristy, and increasingly upscale Zona Rosa.

On May 18th, police shut El Taller, a longtime Zona Rosa nightspot and Mexico City's informal gay community center. For years, El Taller was city's single-handed funder of AIDS education efforts. Five days after the raid, some 300 people marched in protest, joined by representatives from Amnesty International.

The force behind the closings appears, ironically, to be a politician with the Partido Revolucionario Democrática (PRD), the main left-wing force in Mexican politics. Dolores Padierna is head of the Cuauhtémoc delegation, akin to a borough president, and she wants the gay bars to move from the commercial Zona Rosa neighborhood-- with its tree-lined streets, cafes, luxury hotels, and a visible police presence-- to Colonia Atlampa, a poor neighborhood with a reputation for crime. It may be a more colorful part of Mexico City with fewer meddling cops, but to follow Padierna's diktat there would be tantamount to accepting restriction to a ghetto, activists contend.

Padierna has taken heat for the bar crackdown in the mainstream press. A columnist for Reforma, probably Mexico's most influential newspaper, has denounced her as a hypocritical moralist. In June she forced out homeless youths who had been squatting in a Zona Rosa building, leaving some of them to sleep on the streets.

Conspiracy?

Padierna has struck back with McCarthyesque allegations that narco-traffickers launder money through the bars, and even that the Mafia intercepted her phone calls and had someone impersonate her voice-- this after a tape turned up in the offices of the opposition parties of her talking with a bar's employee about a bribe so they could re-open.

She's staged street rallies and disrupted Mexico City's city council, bussing in local supporters who complained about noise pollution from straight establishments in formerly solely residential neighborhoods. The gay bars are mostly in commercial neighborhoods. Politicians who criticize her she denounces as corrupt.

There's been some talks going on with members of Padierna's ruling PRD party who don't share her views, and with opposition legislators, a few of whom said she is on a witchhunt and have introduced a motion for her removal. But the PRD runs Mexico City. And what PRD dissidents there may are moving cautiously. Padierna has the backing of Mexico City's powerful mayor.

In July 2000, Mexico's voters threw out the long-ruling PRI and installed new American-backed reformists, vowing new day in Mexican politics. There's a new political climate even in Mexico City. But did anyone bargain for this?

Editor's Note: Mark McHarry contributed to this report.