Posted on 06/18/2007 5:44:58 PM PDT by SwinneySwitch
SANTA CATARINA, Mexico — Sex never has been safer since a motel called the Thunderclap Ranch reinforced its cinder-block rooms and started advertising them as bulletproof.
For $5 an hour, guests here in the gritty outskirts of violence-plagued Monterrey needn't worry about jealous spouses — or more to the point, drug cartel hit men, who usually are better armed.
Employee Lucy Regalado, 50, stands inside a room at the 'armored' Thunderclap Ranch hotel in the violent Monterrey area. Business is booming at the $5-per-hour establishment, which also will supply six-packs of beer for $4 and snacks through a porthole in the door.
And business is booming.
"Sometimes there are lineups on Fridays and Saturdays and we have to knock," said Lucy Regalado, 50, a manager at the short-stay motel.
More than 80 organized-crime killings this year have rattled Monterrey, a prosperous metropolis whose business and political elites have strong ties to San Antonio. A lunch-hour shooting last week cut down a state legislator and sent high-caliber bullets into a notary's office downtown.
Almost all the slayings remain unsolved.
Once an afterthought or a worry for the very rich, security is now a top priority for regular folks.
"The industry of organized crime has overtaken the state's security forces," said Fernando González, the owner of a private security firm.
From secure transportation of people and valuables to closed-circuit camera systems and business security, González reckons his firm has seen a 35 percent jump in business since mid-2005, about the same time drug gang violence started a steady ascent in Monterrey.
Business leaders say foreign investment has yet to be threatened by the violence. But about 5 percent of new investment is spent on security, said Larry Rubin, the executive vice president of the American Chamber of Mexico.
The ideal sum would be 2 percent, he said at a recent news conference.
A man walks by a sign advertising 'armored' rooms at the Thunderclap Ranch motel in Santa Catarina, a municipality of Monterrey.
One company taking no chances is Missouri-based America's Incredible Pizza Co., which installed airport-grade metal detectors at its first Mexican franchise, which opened in Monterrey last week.
"It's something that's really needed here," Carlos Silva, the franchise's director of customer service, said of the customer screening.
Diners didn't seem to mind having to empty their pockets and purses or risk a frisking as part of enjoying a pizza with the kids.
"It's fabulous," said Elizabeth Barboza, 42, to whom safety is a factor in deciding where to spend her money. The metal detectors "are very good given the situation of the city."
Customer inconvenience and heavy investment in security are probably good business practices.
A Monterrey-area franchise of a similar family restaurant chain, Dave and Buster's, went out of business after the May 2005 shooting deaths of two customers inside the family-packed establishment.
A less family-oriented business but a common sight on the outskirts of any Mexican town large enough to have a church is the hotel de paso.
But the Thunderclap Ranch here stands out because of the "Armored Rooms" it advertises on a hand-painted billboard facing westbound traffic on a highway leaving Monterrey.
Instead of tarp-like curtains for the carports immediately adjacent to about half of its 34 rooms, Rancho el Trueno, as the lodging is called in Spanish, has large steel doors.
Locked inside their rooms, guests can order beer — at $4 a six-pack, as advertised on another billboard — and snacks through a small rectangular porthole in the door.
"They feel safe here, that's why they come," Regalado, the manager, said.
For those who can afford it, the spike in violence has spurred interest in armored vehicles, too.
"The demand has increased quite a bit, just in the last six months, from Mexico," said Trent Kimball, the president of Texas Armoring Corp., a San Antonio firm that bulletproofs vehicles.
Kimball said orders to northern Mexico have jumped about 25 percent since the end of last year. He said clients are concerned about their frequent overland trips between South Texas and Mexico.
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Mattson.sean@gmail.com
Is this what we want for our country?!
Just say NO to Illegal Alien Amnesty!! Keep calling!! It’s NOT OVER!!
U.S. Senate switchboard: (202) 224-3121
U.S. House switchboard: (202) 225-3121
White House comments: (202) 456-1111
Find your House Rep.: http://www.house.gov/writerep
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...coming to a town near you.
Old Mexico Ping!
If you want on, or off this S. Texas/Mexico ping list, please FReepMail me.
$5/hr = $90/18hr (6pm - 12noon) Not a bad rate for a hotel room.
ping!
If it were at least difficult to get into and out of the US by back roads and stolen SUVs - the cartels would not be fighting over control of border towns and the better crossing points.
If the mules carrying backpacks full of drugs were picked up, prosecuted and made to pay for their transgressions, fewer would be available for the cartels to exploit.
If the National Guard was actually defending the border, and not looking at it and already packed up for a retreat, there would be fewer ex-federales shooting up the neighborhood, less kidnapping and silencing of the occasional voice against them.
Somewhere down those lines, fewer Americans would be at risk, fewer mexicans would be at risk, and fewer politicians on both sides of the border would be in someone's pocket.
Thank u
Unfortunate name for a sex oriented establishment.
What a tourist spot in Sunny Mexico.
“Unfortunate name for a sex oriented establishment.”
Yes, aptly named.
I think I’ll start up my own Fortress Motel chain. I’ll call it Motel 7.62.
From mexico? Really!
Must be those family values...
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