From El Sol de Tijuana [translated]:

Bars in Tijuana
El Sol de Tijuana
October 19, 2008

by Ana Luz Sanchez Aguirre.

TIJUANA, Baja California .- Due to the increasing levels of crime and the collusion between authorities and criminals, two-thirds of the bars and disco cafes of Tijuana are on the verge of bankruptcy.

Espiricuta Cesar Sanchez, president of the Tourist Operators and Associates group, warns that this directly affects more than six thousand workers.

It is clear that revenues in this sector have fallen over the past two years from various factors, mainly from a lack of security and not only from acts of violences but also from the continuing, non-stop extortion by police that scare away the customers of bars and disco cafes in the Zona Norte and the main blocks of the city.

The president of this group reported that 350 businesses are at an all time low and these sources of employment are adjusting their shifts and cut staff for lack of customers, this leaves a complicated picture.

Six thousand families who depend directly on this work, including security, cleaning, maintenance, communal areas, as well as the remainder of the jobs that depend on this sector have been affected as a result of the lack clientele, such as taxi drivers, florists, grocery stores and everything that relies on it.

Buisness has declined an average of 75 per cent during a period of 2 years, "there are vacant buisness locations and this is a phenomenon that had never been seen in the bars and disco cafe zone," declared Cesar Sanchez.

The Tourist Operators and Associates group has its members along Primera and Coahuila and Revolution and Miguel F. Martinez, who argued that this area has deteriorated.

http://www.oem.com.mx/elsoldetijuana/notas/n896955.htm