The Imagined Underworld: Sex, Crime, and Vice in Porfirian Mexico City

6. Politics, Corruption, and the Arnulfo Arroyo Affair

6 Politics, Corruption, and the Arnulfo Arroyo Affair Our teacher says you are a good ruler, that you have done much for the people of Mexico.—Effie Willery (schoolgirl from the United States), in a letter to Porfirio Díaz, 1898 the arnulfo arroyo case isundoubtedlyoneofPorfirian Mexico City’s most striking episodes. On September 16, 1897, a social outcast from the middle class, Arnulfo Arroyo, assaulted President Porfirio Díaz during a military parade in downtown Mexico City. Arroyo did not live long to glory in his action. On the night after the assault, police, disguised as members of the city’s underclass, entered the cell in police headquarters where Arroyo was being held and stabbed him to death. The ensuing scandal saw the arrest of the assassins and the alleged suicide of the chief inspector of police, Eduardo Velázquez, over his role in the affair. It also saw the truth revealed: the underworld and the police had become indistinguishable . When newspapers revealed that Arroyo’s murder had been ordered by Vélasquez, a political scandal ensued that shook the regime to the core. Yet questions remain unanswered to this day regarding an event that still inspires commentary in Mexico.1 Did the assault represent an actual assassination attempt, perhaps engineered by ministers planning a coup d’etat? Or was it the desperate action of 156 Politics, Corruption, and the Arnulfo Arroyo Affair a deranged and lone drunk? And what exactly happened to Eduardo Velázquez? Did he commit suicide? Or was he murdered? To probe these questions it is necessary to first understand the nature of the Mexico City police at the end of the nineteenth century. As we have seen, the capital’s police forces could be efficient and ruthless in dealing with perceived threats to public order. Employing dragnets, torture, and informants, the police effectively dealt with the persons behind the Brilanti and the La Profesa robberies. Yet this was only one side of the coin. Contemporary critics and the general population widely regarded the Porfirian police and the politicians that controlled them as corrupt. And as we shall see, this corruption figured prominently in how the Arnulfo Arroyo case developed. Como México no hay dos . . . Criticism of the regime generally avoided direct attacks on Díaz but instead focused on institutions such as local government and police forces.2 Mexico City’s police was a tempting target. Despite successes like La Profesa, the capital’s police force suffered from a general perception of incompetence and brutality, perceptions reinforced by the actions of a few. This must have been frustrating to the regime’s strongest supporters, who desired above all else to improve the city’s image and modernize the police, not just with new weapons, but with a credo that fit the overall goals of order and progress. These efforts went back many years. By Hispanic tradition the police were defined as “a good order that observes and guards the cities and republic, obeying the laws and ordinances established for its wellbeing .” In the colonial era the viceregal authority was the source of police power; after independence the role of the police gained greater importance, especially in the capital. Public celadores, or watchmen, patrolled the city streets under the supervision of the city council. Eventually, the district governor and the president assumed greater control over the Mexico City police.3 This development transformed the capital’s police force into an extension of official Porfirian policies, especially those dealing with urban control. Posted strategically in sensitive areas, the Porfirian police increasingly assumed a role akin to that of a colonial security 157 Politics, Corruption, and the Arnulfo Arroyo Affair force, watchful of unrest in impoverished sectors. This policy had roots in the French Intervention, when imperial officials created eight police precincts and a commissioner to go along with each. The Juárez administration’s project to create a rural police unit, the Rurales, was paralleled by efforts to further organize the Mexico City security force. In 1877 Porfirio Díaz reorganized the capital’s police force and appointed political supporters to oversee vital posts, including General Luis Carballeda as inspector general, obviously reflecting the importance the role would have in maintaining national security.4 Díaz’s reorganization seemed to work, but ordinary citizens soon complained that the police were...