The Chapala government finds itself stuck between a legal rock and a public opinion hard place concerning the situation of the elevated building attached to the Ajijic pier, a structure that has been a repeated subject of controversy since it was erected in 1998.
It was built by Guadalajara businessman Héctor Fabio Rizzo Jasso, who holds a National Water Commission concession title on more than 3,000 square meters of federal land spanning both sides of the pier. He is known to be well connected with influential politicians in the state capital.
Rizzo originally opened a restaurant under the name Señor Pier that folded as tourist trade diminished along with Lake Chapala’s shrinking waters. Some years later he reopened the place as Tequila Republic, closing again around 2012 at the height of cartel criminal activity in the area. A subsequent project to lease the building to a popular Guadalajara restaurant chain never jelled. Later plans to turn it into a series of small shops likewise fell through.
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