Superstore at ancient Mexican site

The spectacular landscape vistas from atop the ruins of the ancient city of Teotihuacan 30 miles northeast of Mexico City are now tarnished by a Bodega Aurrera, a branch of a superstore chain owned by Wal-Mart. The cut-rate retailer occupies 7.5 acres, including a 236-car parking lot and a 72,000-square-foot discount center, situated about 1,600 yards from the 2,000-year-old pyramids of the Sun and Moon. Last November, the opening of the store sparked outrage and protests throughout Mexico by environmentalists and conservationists who decry the situation as yet another example of U.S. consumer culture imposing on Mexican patrimony. A group of Mexico's best-known artists and writers, including Francisco Toledo, Leonora Carrington, Carlos Monsivais and Laura Esquivel, drafted a letter to Mexican president Vicente Fox to protest the development. Meanwhile, a number of demonstrations have taken place in Mexico City outside the National Institute of Archeology and History (INAH), which granted Wal-Mart its permit.

The director of Mexico's Democratic Revolutionary Party, Gerardo Fernandez, recently filed formal charges against the government, claiming that Wal-Mart damaged archeological relics during construction. Late last summer, INAH inspectors found a 3-foot-square ancient altar just a foot under the parking lot. The piece was immediately excavated and conserved, but it raised suspicions that government officials had illegally fast-tracked the project in favor of Wal-Mart, Mexico's largest retailer and employer, with more than 660 stores in 66 cities and annual sales of over $12 billion.

UNESCO has not made a motion to protest the store since it is located just outside the zone demarcated to protect Teotihuacan as a World Heritage Site. And while it is situated in a conservation area, the store is far enough away from the principal archeological district for Wal-Mart to hold its ground.

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