Governor’s bar under scrutiny

Quite some time ago, Baja California Governor Marina Avila and her husband Carlos Torres became partners of a bar company that was recently cited by the City of Mexicali.

Torres, who was appointed as Strategic Projects Coordinator of Baja California, confirmed he and his wife are business partners of Juan Manuel Lameiro-Camacho in Bar El Copeo.

The bar was recently cited by the Mexicali Department of Government for schedule anomalies.

City documents show although the bar stayed consistently open hours after the city schedule limit, owners have just requested extra hours for two days in the last months.

Gov. Avila and Torres were recorded at the bar on February 3 — a day before the city held inspections at local bars.

Luis Alfonso Torres Torres, the governor’s brother-in-law, is also Lameiro’s partner in Tijuana bars through the Vida Orgánica Tijuana Corporation.

El Copeo Sports Bar was first opened in 2019 when Avila was elected Mexicali Mayor. However, documents do not show if the governor was a partner in the company at that time.

Although mandated to close at 2:00 a.m. by city ordinances, the bar stayed open until 5:00 a.m. almost every weekend. The schedule caused concerns and controversy among Mexicali residents after a series of traffic accidents with some of them turning fatal.

The city’s Department of Government fined the bar 48,000 pesos, or around $2,400 USD, for schedule violations.

The agency said in a prepared statement the inspections were held at the request of Mayor Norma Bustamante to prevent traffic accidents.

City ordinances show an extra hour of operation for a local bar costs about $350 USD.