MEXICO CITY — Armando Ruiz and Verónica Villafuerte held each other tight, cuddling, caressing, stretched out on a bench in the middle of a busy promenade here. Nearby, just past a couple deep kissing in the grass, a man toyed with the buttons of his paramour’s blouse.

Children played all around. Cars passed. No one cared.

“It’s a little more open now,” Mr. Ruiz said after sitting up. “We can enjoy ourselves.”

In Havana or Rio de Janeiro, well, big deal. But historically this has been a city of formalities, of long-sleeved shirts, not skin-tight skirts. Blushing has generally been the response to overt sexuality, along with a lexicon of double entendres to mask X-rated desires with banal words, like “coger” (which, officially speaking, means to grab).

And yet, despite such reserve — or perhaps because of it — public affection has increasingly become a symbol of what experts describe as a city learning to loosen up. Government officials here now boast about having some of Latin America’s most liberal laws on abortion and same-sex marriage. Meanwhile, sex shops can now be found in even the fanciest neighborhoods; oh, and this month, Mexico City played host to a five-day sex entertainment show that drew 120,000 fans — placing it among the biggest sex fairs in the world.

“What’s happening is that the undercurrent is becoming more official,” said Luis Perelman, president of the Mexican federation for sexuality education and sexology. “We’re seeing less doublespeak.”

But if there is less embarrassment and shame, as Mr. Perelman and others argue, why now?

That seems to depend on which Mexico one sees: the romantic, or the dismal.

Demographers — optimists in this case — see links between coupling and economics. Several studies have shown that compared with a generation ago, Mexicans are having more sex at younger ages, a trend that generally tracks with Mexican economic expansion. Sex and affection, some Mexican demographers argue, tend to be signs of confidence, expressions of faith that opportunities await.

Salaries and culture also intertwine. Mexico’s growth has created a larger middle class that — in addition to opening up the country’s political process — has made technology and international media more accessible. The hookups on “Jersey Shore,” for instance, are now just as easy to see here as in Miami, while pornography can be downloaded at public parks with Wi-Fi.

The so-called love hotels, where local couples have canoodled for decades, can no longer keep sexuality hidden. “They see it all on TV or the Internet, so they no longer feel they are the only ones doing it,” Mr. Perelman said.

And, as Mr. Ruiz put it, “We don’t care as much about what other people think.”

Clearly, that seemed to be the case for a teenager at a mall recently, with his lips ardently attached to, of all things, the knee of his girlfriend; or for the man on a busy corner an hour later, passionately kissing a woman while wrapping his leg around her like an ivy vine.

But Mr. Ruiz and Ms. Villafuerte, who are both 40, may be more typical. They met three months ago while selling hats in an outdoor plaza, and in a year when the Mexican economy is expected to grow by 4 percent, after growing by 5.5 percent last year, they said they had taken an afternoon off to spend time together because they could afford to.

Neither looked particularly sensual. Mr. Ruiz wore round glasses below a shiny balding head; Ms. Villafuerte’s blue eyeliner was her only hint of provocation. But they both said that their affection reflected a positive shift.

“When we were young, people would point and gawk at you for this kind of thing,” Mr. Ruiz said. “Now, there’s more acceptance.”

Pride may be a better term. Two years ago, Mexico City actually beat the world record for simultaneous smooching when 39,897 people locked lips downtown.

Other couples, however, described public affection in more ominous terms. Mexico these days is essentially Jekyll and Hyde: positive economic growth is paired with a sprawling war on drug cartels that has claimed 34,000 lives since 2006.

For people like Paulina Pérez, 26, who was sitting on her boyfriend’s lap during a break from in-line skating in the upscale neighborhood of Polanco, public affection reflects not a spike in happiness, but rather a deficit of trust.

Mexicans, she said, have always drawn a line between formal relationships and relationships with those inside “their circle of confidence.” Hugs, kisses and warmth color the latter, while handshakes and a polite distance dominate the former.

This is generally what makes amorous Mexican couples stand out. “Public displays of affection draw attention precisely because of the disconnect with the general culture,” said Rubén Gallo, who edited The Mexico City Reader, a chronicle of the capital.

But the gap between the social spheres seems to be widening. While drug-related violence has made Mexicans more afraid of strangers, it has intensified their closest bonds, Ms. Pérez said. So the affection that looks to some like an opening — a more honest account of sexuality — may actually be, for others, a reflection of turning inward to fight off despair.

“Affection is a way to forget,” Ms. Pérez said. “You forget your problems, and you live.”

Her boyfriend, tapping her behind, said he agreed.

Copyright. 2011. The New York Times Company. All Rights Reserved

CAIRO — In his first address to the nation after bloody protests and calls for reform, President Bashar al-Assad on Wednesday blamed a broad conspiracy from beyond his borders for Syria’s turmoil and offered no concessions to ease his authoritarian regime’s grip on public life.

To apparently choreographed cries of support and applause, Mr. Assad appeared only briefly before the country’s Parliament for what had been billed as a major speech that would define his response to the biggest challenge facing the government’s authority in decades.

The speech had been highly anticipated inside and outside Syria for signs that Mr. Assad would lift or ease the state of emergency that has underpinned his Baath Party’s hold on power since 1963. But he made no reference to any such action and the speech seemed likely to dismay protesters who have been demanding reform.

Mr. Assad’s appearance had been forecast as an attempt to calm tensions after government forces repeatedly opened fire on demonstrators in recent days, killing dozens of people as Syrians clamored for the same reforms that have become the rallying cry of many across the Arab world.

Smiling and looking relaxed, Mr. Assad spoke of “the plots that are being hatched against our country” and said they represented a “test of our unity.”

“We are for reform and we are for meeting the people’s demands,” Mr. Assad said, referring to legislative changes under consideration for years but not carried out because of what he called a series of regional crises. “The first priority was to the stability of Syria, to maintain stability.”

He added: “We are not in favor of chaos and destruction.”

He acknowledged that “Syrian people have demands that have not been met,” but said that those grievances were “used as a cover to dupe the people to go to the streets.” He added that “some of them had good intentions.”

“It is not a secret now that Syria is being subject to a conspiracy,” he said. “The timing and shape depends on what is happening in other Arab countries. “

But he insisted that his regime would not be pressured into what he described as premature change.

Before Mr. Assad spoke, tens of thousands poured into the streets of the southern town of Dara’a after mourners from four funerals joined into a large antigovernment protest, according to a witness interviewed by telephone.

Then after the speech, about 3,000 people marched in a separate demonstration through the northwestern town of Latakia to voice their opposition to Mr. Assad, and security forces opened fire. A witness said that at least two people had been killed and another wounded.

Mr. Assad’s speech came a day after his cabinet resigned in what was seen as a significant — if primarily symbolic — gesture in a nation where the leadership rarely responds to public pressure and where decisions are made not by the cabinet but by the president and his inner circle, including multiple security services.

Mr. Assad initially boasted that his nation was immune to the popular unrest that has swept the region. But events in Syria have played out much as they have in other countries — moving from denial to a bloody crackdown to efforts at appeasement. Now he has little room to maneuver in terms of offering concessions without undermining his leadership and that of his allies.

“The emergency law is a cornerstone of Baathist rule, and once it goes everything else might go with it,” said Karim Émile Bitar, a researcher at the Institute for International and Strategic Relations in Paris. “Things could collapse for them if they’re serious about lifting it: liberation of political prisoners, multiple parties, no more harassing activists. People are going to use this to air more and more grievances.”

The resignation of the cabinet came as the government worked hard to restore its credibility after thousands marched against it around the country and the military took up positions in cities in the north and south. Tens of thousands of government supporters rallied in Damascus, the capital, on Tuesday, waving flags and pictures of Mr. Assad. The government apparently bused many of them in and pressured others to attend the rally.

Government supporters poured into the Square of the Seven Seas in Damascus, with thousands standing under a 45-foot-long portrait of the president on the Syrian national bank building. They chanted, “Only God, Syria and Bashar!” and “With our soul, with our blood, we will redeem you, Bashar.”

As the crowds dispersed early in the afternoon a sense of carnival prevailed, with smiling children and couples holding hands and eating ice cream. Cars around the city honked their horns in support of Mr. Assad and stern young men sat atop microbuses, clutching pictures of the president. Similar rallies were held in major cities, with the noticeable exception of Latakia —where a sit-in by hundreds of protesters had continued Tuesday — and Dara’a in the south. The military’s presence has been heavily felt in both cities after recent violence.

The protests began more than a week ago in Dara’a, after the police arrested a group of young people for scrawling antigovernment graffiti. The ripples were felt nationwide after government forces fired on demonstrators. Protesters set fire to party offices in several towns, toppled a statue of the former president, Hafez al-Assad, Mr. Assad’s father, and tore down billboards of the current president, actions that have been unheard of in the police state.

SAN GABRIEL, Calif. — The building inspectors and police officers walked into the small row of connected town houses here knowing something was amiss. Neighbors had complained about noise and a lot of pregnant women coming and going. And when they went into a kitchen they saw a row of clear bassinets holding several infants, with a woman acting as a nurse hovering over them.

For months, officials say, the house was home to “maternity tourists,” in this case, women from China who had paid tens of thousands of dollars to deliver their babies in the United States, making the infants automatic American citizens. Officials shut down the home, sending the 10 mothers who had been living there with their babies to nearby motels.

“These were not women living in squalor — it was a well taken care of place and clean, but there were a lot of women and babies,” said Clayton Anderson, a city inspector who shut down the house on March 9. “I have never seen anything like this before. We really couldn’t determine the exact number of people living there.”

For the last year, the debate over birthright citizenship has raged across the country, with some political leaders calling for an end to the 14th Amendment, which gives automatic citizenship to any baby born in the United States. Much of the debate has focused on immigrants entering illegally from poor countries in Latin America. But in this case the women were not only relatively wealthy, but also here legally on tourist visas. Most of them, officials say, have already returned to China with their American babies.

Immigration experts say it is impossible to know precisely how widespread “maternity tourism” is. Businesses in China, Mexico and South Korea advertise packages that arrange for doctors, insurance and postpartum care. And the Marmara, a Turkish-owned hotel on the Upper East Side in New York City, has advertised monthlong “baby stays” that come with a stroller.

For the most part, though, the practice has involved individuals. The discovery of the large-scale facility here in the San Gabriel foothills raises questions about whether it was a rare phenomenon or an indication that maternity tourism is entering a new, more institutionalized phase with more hospital-like facilities operating quietly around the country.

The San Gabriel town houses are nestled in a small street lined with modest houses, small apartment buildings and palm trees. A construction crew was at work late last week, closing up walls that had been knocked down between units, in violation of the housing code.

Signs of a makeshift maternity house were evident everywhere. In one kitchen, stacks of pictures showing a mother holding her days-old baby sat next to several cans of formula. In another, boxes of prenatal vitamins were tucked into rice cookers. Several bedroom doors had numbers on them. Some rooms were rather luxurious — B9, for instance, had a large walk-in closet, a whirlpool and a small personal refrigerator.

The Center for Health Care Statistics estimates that there were 7,462 births to foreign residents in the United States in 2008, the most recent year for which statistics are available. That is a small fraction of the roughly 4.3 million total births that year.

Immigration experts say they can only guess why well-to-do Chinese women are so eager to get United States passports for their babies, but they suspect it is largely as a kind of insurance policy should they need to move. The children, once they turn 21, would also be able to petition for their parents to get United States citizenship.

Angela Maria Kelley, the vice president for immigration policy and advocacy at the Center for American Progress, a liberal-leaning research group, said the existence of businesses helping foreign women give birth in the United States had only just begun to enter the public consciousness.

“If this is something that was really widespread and happening all over, you would have expected it to really have revealed itself,” Ms. Kelley said. “I think it deserves a lot more study and a lot more attention. But to say that you want to change the Constitution because of this feels like killing a fly with an Uzi.”

The State Department, which grants tourist visas, is not permitted to deny visa applications simply because a woman is pregnant.

“These people aren’t doing anything in violation of our laws,” said Mark Krikorian, the executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates tougher immigration controls. “But if anything, it is worse than illegal immigrants delivering a baby here. Those kids are socialized as Americans. This phenomenon of coming to the U.S. and then leaving with people who have unlimited access to come back is just ridiculous.”

San Gabriel, about 20 miles east of Los Angeles, has grown rapidly in recent years and is now a hub of businesses catering to Asian immigrants — tea shops fill the strip malls and for-sale signs in Chinese and Vietnamese are planted in front of several homes.

Mr. Anderson said a kind of “semitransient” community had a strong presence in this suburb. It is not uncommon for a single residence to be home to as many as 40 people. But as in other cities, the boarders are usually men, often working to send money to their families back home.

City officials asked basic questions to the women they found in the maternity house: how did they get here and who paid for them to come? The answers: on a tourist visa, and our family paid. The house’s owner, Dwight Chang, was fined $800 for code violations. Mr. Chang did not return several phone calls, and one worker at the building said he was traveling and not available.

“We didn’t do an extensive interview of the women; that wasn’t their job nor should it be,” said Jennifer Davis, the director of community development for the city. The city did alert public health officials, she said, who found nothing wrong with the babies.

Ms. Davis said city officials had also alerted the immigration authorities. Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement said the agency had investigated a similar situation in another Southern California city last year, but it yielded no evidence of any federal violations. She declined to say whether federal officials were investigating the San Gabriel operation, citing agency policy.

Yolanda Alvarez, who walks her dog past the town houses twice each day, said neighbors had complained among themselves for nearly a year, noticing “many, many young women” going in and out of the house.

Several pictures of a nurse posing with new mothers were scattered on the counters Friday. A framed tile was collecting dust amid the construction. “Home,” it said, “is where your story begins.”

Copyright. 2011. The New York Times Company. All Rights Reserved.