MEXICO CITY, Mexico -- Mexico City launched an uphill battle this week against the street vendors who have turned many of the city's sidewalks and subway entrances into in-your-face displays of graphic, triple-X movies and magazines.
Displays of videos whose photo covers leave nothing to the imagination have sparked complaints in a society where many still value qualities such as obedience in children and modesty in dress.
The stark contrast -- social conservatism and sidewalk porn -- are the outgrowth of yet another local tradition: weak law enforcement and a longstanding tolerance for street vendors who hawk everything from pirated DVDs to stuffed animals.
"It's everywhere. It bothers us a lot because we have to pull the kids away so they won't see it, and then there it is on the other side, too," said Ramon Villegas, who heads the Mexico City chapter of a national parents' association. "This can really damage kids psychologically. It can damage them emotionally.
"The police need to make a commitment to do something about this."
Starting this week, authorities did start doing something. On Monday, the Mexico City government signed an agreement with an association of newspaper vendors to keep hard-core magazines off the front shelves of kiosks, where they are often hung.
But the agreement only covers stands near schools and parks -- less than 20 percent of the city's 14,000 newspaper and magazine kiosks.
By midweek, the newspaper vendors began handing out fliers informing vendors of the terms of the agreement as well as a placard that reads: "Dear customer, out of respect for the family, we do not display adult publications. But if you want them, please ask."
But Guillermo Vela, the secretary of the newspaper vendors' union, noted that "the main problem lies with people selling the merchandise on sidewalks and at subway stops, and those people don't belong to our organization."
In an effort to force some of the tens of thousands of unlicensed street vendors to be more discreet, some 600 city police swept through a five-block stretch Tuesday and confiscated thousands of pirated porn videos.
No arrests were made.
Selling pornography is not a crime in Mexico City. Police instead confiscated the X-rated videos because they are -- as most DVDs sold in the city -- pirated copies, often of U.S. films.
"We do offer original videos, but people won't buy them because of the price," said one porn street vendor, who for fear of arrest would give only his nickname, "Chore."
By Thursday, many of the downtown sidewalk porn vendors were back, albeit a little more nervous. Some stood a few steps away from the stalls, apparently so that they could deny having anything to do with the merchandise if confronted by police.
City Public Safety Secretary Joel Ortega justified the anti-porn operation by saying children "need to be able to walk freely through the streets on their way to school."
By late in the week, some porno street stands had been taken over by vendors selling pirated computer programs.
Mexico City's ubiquitous street entrepreneurs have other, creative ways of selling goods on the sly.
When computer software stands began to be raided by police a few years ago, vendors took to displaying their wares in loose-leaf binders that could be flipped open quickly for potential customers.
Other vendors -- known here as "torreros," or "bullfighters" -- have long displayed their wares in small, jumbled piles on blankets that can be swiftly gathered up and spirited off when police appear.
For most officials, that would be preferable to the current situation, in which sidewalks are crowded with 6-foot-tall wire display racks, often crammed with hundreds of porno videos.
The phenomenon started taking off in the 1990s, when cheap video players -- and later DVD machines -- became available to the general public.
"There is no modesty anymore," Villegas said. "Our values are being lost."
