Fighting City Hall:  Misiones Shopping Mall Charging Parking Fees Again

 The Misiones shopping center, an uptown, upscale spot right around the corner from the US Consulate offices, has again begun charging parking fees, in spite of protests by citizens directed at city ordinances that have recently granted permission to begin charging fees again.  This is a sore spot for many shoppers, some of whom have found alternate parking places nearby, while others, have simply stopped making purchases at Misiones.  One client dropped her membership at a gymnasium in the center in protest.  See Diario, this morning (here) for story.  The Sanborns restaurant at Misiones never seemed to have as much business as the one on 16 de Septiembre across from the Lucerna hotel, and I would bet it's business will decline.

In the bad old days of Juárez, 2009-2012, there may have been some justification for stopping each car on the way out, as a security measure, but when things calmed down it seemed like a rip-off and in 2016 the municipality, citing technical violations, forced the mall to eliminate the inconvenience.  Now, just a few months after Hector Cabada was declared the victor in a close and controversially determined mayoral election, the city has ordained that the fees can start up again.  Misiones announced the resumption of the fees in early January, but after protests, this was suspended on Jan. 18, citing further technical violations.  These, apparently, have been cleaned up and fees have resumed.  So have protests, including complaints by the two duly elected congressional delegates to the national assembly.

Juárez Homicides on Pace with 2018

With three days yet to go in January my count is about 97 homicides so far this month.  Yesterday four dead bodies were found scattered in an empty lot in Col Carlos Chavira, one of them with a disfigured face and signs of torture.  Another man, fleeing from pursuers, jumped out of his Ram pickup and ran for his life, but gunmen caught up to him, shot him several times, and left him dead on the median in Col. Vicente Guerrero.