03 October 2004	Sunday	17 Shaban 1425

Mexico City: The ancient pyramids of Teotihuacan are among the most important pre-Hispanic sites in the Americas.

Thousands of visitors from all over the world flock there each year to scale the majestic Sun and Moon pyramids - even world leaders such as Japan's Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who was there just last month.

Now, the world's largest retailer, Wal-Mart, has chosen to build a store right alongside Teotihuacan, scandalizing archaeologists and raising the hackles of local residents and other Mexicans concerned with their nation's cultural heritage.

Lying 50 kilometres northeast of Mexico City, the Sun Pyramid, with a height of 63 metres, and the Moon Pyramid, somewhat lower, rise up amid the cacti as imposing physical evidence of a culture that flourished 1,500 years ago.

Visiting Teotihuacan is a must-do for foreign tourists, and the huge army of visitors means very good business for handicraft sellers and providers of tourist services.

Tourists are welcome - but not the US supermarket chain. A citizen's group has begun protests to try to halt the construction of the Wal-Mart right next to the ancient archeological site.

Recently, local shopowners, joined by farmers armed with machetes, staged a rally in front of the construction site and blocked roadways into it. Wal-Mart said the activists attacked their personnel and threatened to lynch one of their employees.

The Civic Defence Front of the Teotihuacan Valley, which has launched the protests, says their cause is a good one because building a Wal-Mart store is "an attack against Mexico's cultural patrimony" and will alter the image of the entire historic area.

Members of the Civic Front have even turned to UNESCO, the United Nations cultural and scientific agency, to help them, since Teotihuacan is considered a part of the world's archaeological heritage.

Wal-Mart has rejected the criticism and noted that it received authorization from the National Anthropology and History Institute (INAH) and from local municipal and state officials to build the store.

A spokeswoman for the firm in Mexico, Claudia Algorri, said that Wal-Mart hired an archaeologist, - a condition set by INAH - to supervise construction work.

The future supermarket is located 700 metres from the Sun Pyramid, in an area where construction is allowed as long as an INAH permit is obtained.

INAH director, Sergio Raul Arroyo, said recently that a permit was granted, among other reasons because Wal-Mart will respect the image of the area by erecting a low-lying building and using specific construction materials and colours.

Opinions about the Wal-Mart project are divided in the nearby town of San Juan Teotihuacan. Members of the civic front include archaeological advocates as well as local shopkeepers who fear overwhelming competition from the giant US chain. But some local residents see advantages in a new supermarket offering low prices opening.

In Mexico City some citizens are outraged.

"It is truly regrettable that the director of INAH, Raul Arroyo, lacks the necessary sensitivity to realize the damage Wal-Mart will cause to the surroundings," a woman wrote in a letter sent to the editor printed in Reforma newspaper. "Could he be planning to fill the area with supermarkets and condominiums?".-dpa