John-Bates: Bars, businesses in Special Zones will suffer more

Gail Alexan­der

There will be a high eco­nom­ic toll for bars and oth­er busi­ness­es in Spe­cial Zones.

That’s the view of Op­po­si­tion PNM Sen­a­tor Janelle John-Bates, who says cor­dons and cur­fews in Spe­cial Zones will add an­oth­er prob­lem for bars and oth­er busi­ness­es there, apart from the in­creas­es al­ready im­posed on them by the UNC Gov­ern­ment.

Speak­ing on the Gov­ern­ment’s Spe­cial Zones bill in the Sen­ate on Wednes­day, John-Bates ac­cused the Gov­ern­ment of us­ing the bill to sup­press the pub­lic and un­der­mine rights.

John-Bates said when the idea of the zones was first heard, she con­clud­ed that it was the Gov­ern­ment’s way of “... con­tin­u­ing its rule by sup­pres­sion, and noth­ing I’ve heard in Par­lia­ment has dis­suad­ed me from that. In fact, I’m for­ti­fied.”