La Sierra Residential hanging off cliff on road to downtown Tijuana

On April 9 La Sierra Residential, a two-building condo complex located on Cuatemoc Sur Boulevard, one of the busiest roads that lead traffic in and out of Tijuana's downtown, collapsed. The last several days the structure was hanging off its foundations, while the hill where it was constructed started to tear apart.

Lawyer Cecilia Alvarez, who represents the neighbors, said no one was hurt, but the issues are how the law doesn't protect those leasing and the corruption of municipal and state government.

“Because the authorities give permission for buildings to be constructed in a place where they cannot be built, they put the safety of other people at risk."

Most of the occupants evacuated safely with all their belongings, but not Jorge Zamora who lost two cars that he uses for work. “I wasn't in town when it happened; they were in the parking lot (which also collapsed). I'm just asking for the reparations for them and no more. It's really difficult to start over again. I lived there for 10 years; now I am staying with my cousin, and my wife is living somewhere else because we can't pay the $400- or $700 rent”.

Cecilia Alvarez says that the most renters will get covered will be the one month's rent they all paid up front and a month's rent uncharged, but no more. She noted that the state penal code barely advocates the rights of renters if something like this happens.

According to her, there is collusion between government and property owners, to get projects on the “fast track.”

There are a series of demands that are being sent to the city council and to the state government. "We need to have the documentation of the permits to know what happened because it is important for the city itself. What they want is to waste time in order keep the case out of the public eye.”

These lawsuits might show responsibility by former city mayors or public functionaries, but Alvares said that she's mistrustful of current administration workers and the council departments involved. She doubts whether they will facilitate documentation to find out who was responsible. This suspicion is partly due to the statements made by Mayor Monserrat Caballero, who said the city was built in marzipan. She sees that as a way to justify the slumping down of the building and avoid their responsibility for it.