Running cities well gets politicians elected as presidents

By TIM JOHNSON Herald Staff Writer

QUITO, Ecuador -- With overflowing populations, traffic congestion and rampant crime, the capital cities of Latin America are getting ever more complicated to oversee.

Those who do a successful job are seeing their stars rise.

By mid-August, five Latin countries will be led by presidents who were once mayors of their capitals. And the list appears likely to grow.

"It's a large club already,'' said the newest member, Jamil Mahuad, former mayor of Quito, who won a runoff for the presidency of Ecuador last Sunday.

When Mahuad takes office Aug. 10, he will join the presidents of Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua, all former mayors of their nation's capitals.

Experts say the trend of mayors moving to the presidential palace reflects several factors, including the urbanization of Latin America, the relatively recent advent of local elections in some 15,000 cities and the impact that mayors now have on local problems.

"They have greater authority and greater visibility than ever before,'' said Michael Shifter, an analyst at the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington. ``It's an increasingly common route to political mobility.''

Tough challenge

With the high stakes involved, becoming mayor of a big Latin capital is no guarantee of political success. Experts point to Mexico's Cuauhtemoc Cardenas, a former opposition presidential candidate who was elected mayor of Mexico City last year. That post could be his undoing. As mayor of the hemisphere's biggest megalopolis, Cardenas has struggled with the city's many woes.

"He has to show a record of dealing with Mexico's urban problems, and I don't know if he can do it,'' said Mark Chernick, a political scientist at Georgetown University.

Mahuad, though, is an example of a big-city mayor who could.

Elected in 1992, three years after attending Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, Mahuad noticeably improved life for Quito's 1.5 million residents. His crowning glory: a municipal trolley system that shuttles people rapidly and efficiently.

"Quito is visibly a better city now than when he came to office,'' a foreign diplomat said. ``The streets are clean. The garbage is picked up.''

Mahuad said it's natural for citizens to turn to mayors as national leaders if they show ability to solve local problems.

'People' problems

``Mayors are always in contact with real problems of people,'' he said. ``If you are elected mayor, you spend all your time talking about potable water, sewage, garbage, roads, all part of the lives of people. Their quality of life depends on this.

``If you are a member of congress or a minister, you talk about industrial policy, foreign policy, economic policy. These things are fundamental, but they don't necessarily have any direct effect on people.''

For decades, even centuries, mayors in most Latin countries were appointed by presidents, and city halls wielded little power. Since 1980, however, 15 Latin countries have moved to directly electing mayors.

Argentina's capital, Buenos Aires, had its first direct elections in 1996, and Mexico City followed suit last year.

City halls now enjoy far greater taxing authority, allowing mayors to react to citizen pressures.

``There's no question the elected mayors are doing a better job by multiples than the previous mayors,'' said Mark L. Schneider, an assistant administrator at the U.S. Agency for International Development. Previous mayors ``were essentially party hacks,'' he said.

Frugality no asset

Mayors who exercise fiscal responsibility are not necessarily the most popular. Winning favorable reviews requires visible improvements.

``The lesson to draw is, if you want to be president, while you're mayor, you don't impose austerity. You try to spend like a madman,'' said Eduardo Gamarra, director of the Latin American and Caribbean Center at Florida International University.

Among the new batch of Latin mayors rising to the limelight:

Alberto Andrade, who has halted urban decay as mayor of Lima, is debating whether to run against Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori in 2000.

In Venezuela, Irene Saez, mayor of the upscale Caracas district of Chacao, wants to parlay her mayoral success into a presidential bid in December, although her popularity has faltered lately.

The mayor of Buenos Aires, Fernando de la Rua, may become a consensus candidate for the opposition Radical Civic Union-Frepaso alliance to challenge Argentina's incumbent President Carlos Menem.