Frustrated by his inability to promptly bring order out chaos at Chapala’s waterfront commercial zone, Carlos Rosales Pérez has thrown in the towel as head of the municipality’s Regulations office less than a month after taking up the post.
Rosales came aboard as director of Reglamentos, Inspección y Vigilancia on July 18 at the invitation of Mayor Joaquin Huerta. In signing on for the job, he presented a letter of resignation to be kept on file in case he encountered insurmountable obstacles in achieving his goal to reign in unruly vendors who have stubbornly refused to adhere to standing norms for doing business in the city’s prime tourist quarter.
The merchants have a long history of bucking municipal authorities who have attempted to impose order in the market area located adjacent to the eastern segment of the Malecón that was built under the 2004-2006 administration of Arturo Gutierrez. They have also earned a reputation for persistent internecine bickering that has occasionally sparked violent confrontations among themselves.
Key issues Rosales was keen to resolve included keeping mobile vendors in their assigned spaces and out of restricted areas, squelching unauthorized transfers of fixed modules to third parties, enforcing a prohibition on the sale of hard liquor and the established limitations on the number of tables set up for customers at food stalls, rectifying substandard health and safety conditions, and eliciting the vendor’s collaboration in maintenance and general cleanliness of their workplace.
Rosales reached the end of his rope on Sunday, August 10. During the latest of several futile operations carried out with the aim of coaxing merchants to get into line, he and his team of inspectors were greeted with insults and obstinance from most of the parties involved. He announced his irrevocable resignation the following day. 
However, in explaining his posture more fully at an August 13 press conference, Rosales told local reporters that the greatest impediments he encountered actually resided inside City Hall. He stated that he was forced to work without adequate staff and tools, while the government’s markets, accounting and legal departments denied needed support to coordinate actions for properly administrating what he qualified as “a No Man´s Land.”
“I was given an out-dated register of authorized vendors and their assigned spots. I discovered one employee listed on the payroll for my office who never appeared for work and others who were working in different departments. I also found out there is not even a system in place to collect and monitor payment of (rights of usage) fees from the merchants,” he complained.
Without naming names, he also charged that some top officials and city councilors of different political stripes pressured him to back-off on certain vendors who are protected under their wings. Worse still, he said, Huerta failed to demonstrate the kind of strong leadership needed to address critical problems and foster harmony among the merchants.
“It’s a lost cause, at least for the remainder of this administration,” Rosales concluded. “I hope the next mayor will have the guts and firm hand needed to fix the situation for once and for all.”