CDMX nightlife crackdown hits independent cultural spaces

by Madeleine Wattenbarger.

It was 8pm on a Thursday in March when officials from the Mexico City Institute of Administrative Verification (INVEA) showed up at La Caña, a seafood restaurant, LGBTQ+ bar and cultural center in the Doctores neighborhood. But the routine code check soured before it began.

“They arrived with excessive violence, with riot police, with high-calibre weapons,” recalls Ali Gua Gua, musician and representative of the cooperative-run space. “They came in pushing people, taking their tostadas away, yelling.”

La Caña hosts free concerts, literary events and cultural activities nearly every night. To make ends meet, it operates as a restaurant, with a permit that allows for the sale of alcohol with food. The night when the INVEA arrived, one table of diners was still awaiting their dinner order with two beers on the table. The officials seized on the momentary lapse: “They said, no, this isn’t a restaurant, this is a bar, and we’re going to shut you down.”