Oaxaca, Mexico: Hotel, restaurant and merchants sectors detail losses, blast negotiations with criminals, demand Fox's help

Javier Pérez Chavarría, president of the National Chamber of Restaurants, along with his counterpart in the Hotel and Motel chamber and the leader of the Downtown Merchants Council, blasted President Fox and Interior Secretary Abascal for negotiating with criminals. Pérez Chavarría:

Mr. Fox and Mr. Abascal, what Oaxaca needs is to stop negotiating the release of convicted felons and quashing of outstanding arrest warrants and begin forcing some respect for the law upon those who break it.

Outraged by the recent destruction of the Burger King on Avenida Universidad, Pérez Chavarría said that the attack was against a business in which Oaxacans had invested over 1 million pesos and more than 50 direct employees lost their jobs. He added that "in this city so devastated by these criminal groups, it will take years to recover the economic and tourism sector losses, to say nothing of the educational sector".

He said that the restaurant sector alone had lost 500 million pesos (45 million dollars) and over 900 restaurant employees had lost their jobs since the teachers went out on srike in mid-May.

Pérez Chavarría added, "The easiest and most cowardly way out is to pass along the problems to the next president."

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TAGS: Oaxaca, Mexico, Oaxaca teachers strike, Vicente Fox