Police crack down on drunken drivers in Mexico City

MEXICO CITY -- Police are coming down hard on drunken drivers in Mexico City this holiday season, but not on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve.

The two exempted days may seem like good news for the over indulgent, but they add a fresh layer to the controversy that has surrounded the use of checkpoints and breath tests since they were introduced in the capital in September.

Gerardo Balles, 35, a lawyer, said the law is unconstitutional, and that waiving it on Dec. 24 and Dec. 31 makes no sense.

"I believe this, of all times, is when they should be doing it," he said speaking over the clamor of conversation in a crowded bar.

Police explain that traffic in the city of 8.5 million will be down by as much as 85 percent on those two days.

"These are strictly family days," said Mexico City police department spokesman Enrique Gonzalez. "The Mexican custom is to settle at the house of a family member. ... They'll sleep there, rest, wake up possibly with a hangover and then go home."

In the past, suspects were ordered to undergo blood tests -- a lengthy process that required a visit to a doctor and was seldom practiced.

Then came the "alcoholi-metro."

Critics said it would clash with Mexico's fiesta-friendly culture, and drivers suspected it was just another way for corrupt cops to solicit bribes.

But the police persisted. They shifted from pulling drivers over on weekends only to weekdays during the three-week holiday season, when Mexicans party with pinatas and punch.

Balles was one of more than 50,000 drivers pulled over at Mexico City checkpoints this year and among more than 6,000 given the alcoholimetro test. He passed, but more than 1,000 drivers have tested over the 0.04 blood-alcohol level. Officials estimate it takes about two tequila shots to be over the limit.

Restaurants are promoting bottled oxygen-rich water that supposedly disguises the amount of alcohol consumed, and police have reacted angrily to reports of bar owners tipping off customers about checkpoints in the neighborhood.

The fuss has political potential too. Mexico's main opposition party offers free legal assistance to drivers appealing an arrest.

"It's very authoritarian from our point of view," said city lawmaker Manuel Jimenez, leader of the Institutional Revolutionary Party's faction at City Hall. "Our constitution prevents someone from being detained without reason and humiliated ... in front of their children, family or co-workers."

Sipping a beer at a bar, video editor David Naval, 28, tied the crackdown to the political ambitions of Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a potential presidential candidate.

"It's an effort to show his government is clean," Naval said. "But if you're going to do it, do it every day."

Jimenez said his party has received complaints of extortion by police and mistreatment of women under the testing program. But he couldn't provide specific examples, and the allegation is disputed by some.

"Of the people that I have heard from, you can't give the police a single peso," said teacher Lydia Alvarez, 31, as she ordered a cocktail at an upscale bar.

Alvarez said she and her friends have changed their night habits, opting to take taxis, appoint a designated driver, drink less or walk.