October 7, 2011
MEXICO CITY (AFP) - A proposal in Mexico City for marriage contracts with minimum durations of two years has raised eyebrows and prompted an outcry from the Catholic Church and conservative politicians.
"Deciding how many years a marriage should last is like giving it an expiration date and heading for failure. I wouldn't do it," said Mariana Viayara, a 34-year-old preparing to tie the knot in the capital this weekend.
But lawmakers from the leftist party which runs the city hall believe the measure, put forward last week, could reduce a rocketing divorce rate and add a touch of practicality to a culture where romantic gestures are revered.
The leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) of Mayor Marcelo Ebrard is not afraid of controversy in the majority Catholic nation -- it has already pushed through laws to legalize abortion and gay marriages in Mexico City.
The new proposal, from lawmaker Lizbeth Rosas, would involve a reform to the civil code to say: "the length of marriage will be decided by the term agreed by those signing the contract... and it can't be less than two years."
At the end of the term, the couple would either ratify the marriage or dissolve it in a simple, un-bureaucratic step.
"What we're looking for is not to speed up divorce but, on the one hand, to give a chance to the marriage and, on the other to avoid long and complicated processes that a divorce can present," Rosas told AFP.
The contract would also specify how to split up property, pay alimony and determine custody of children in case the marriage failed.
Rosas underlined that around 17,000 of 33,000 marriages registered in the capital between 2009 to 2011 had ended in divorce, 80 percent of them failing within a year.
"In many cases there's already a child and we see single mothers without resources having to wait, if all goes well, for up to a year for a judge to decide on alimony."
But the pragmatic argument has yet to convince many here.
Alberto Garcia, a 46-year-old who has been through two complicated divorces, said the initiative discouraged romanticism.
"To make a contract with an expiration date is a frightening idea. What about love, romanticism and the feeling everything's wonderful when you fall in love?"
The spokesman for the Mexico City archdiocese slammed the measure, echoed by members of the National Action Party (PAN) of President Felipe Calderon.
PAN lawmaker Carlos Pizano said that existing pre-nuptial accords were sufficient and "it would be absurd to decide about children who don't exist."
Pizano underlined that the capital has already permitted "express divorces" which allow separations on the wishes of only one member of a couple.
"Human beings have been shown to be weak at predicting the future," said Rolando Diaz Loving, an investigator in psychology at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. "We can't be rational in a situation of passion."
But the initiative showed marriage was continuing to evolve, he added.
The measure still faces many months of debate in the capital's legislature where, although the PRD has more than half the seats needed to approve it, opposition is set to be fierce.
