Extortion, gang violence hitting even big corporations and business leaders

CIUDAD VICTORIA (AP):

Even Mexico’s largest corporations are now being hit by demands from drug cartels, and gangs are increasingly trying to control the sale, distribution and pricing of certain goods.

Well-known, high-ranking business leaders aren’t even safe.

On Monday, the head of the business chambers’ federation in Tamaulipas state, across the border from Texas, gave television interviews complaining about drug cartel extortion in the state. Hours later, on Tuesday, Julio Almanza was shot to death outside his offices in the city of Matamoros, across from Brownsville, Texas.

“We are hostages to extortion demands, we are hostages of criminal groups,” Almanza said in one of his last interviews. “Charging extortion payments has practically become the national sport in Tamaulipas.”

The problem came to a head when the Femsa corporation, which operates Oxxo, Mexico’s largest chain of convenience stores, announced late last week that it was closing all of its 191 stores and seven gas stations in another border city, Nuevo Laredo, because of gang problems.

The company said it had long had to deal with cartel demands that its gas stations buy their fuel from certain distributors. But the straw that broke the camel’s back came in recent weeks when gang members abducted two store employees, demanding they act as lookouts or provide information to the gang.

Since convenience stores are used by most people in Mexico, the gangs see them as good points to keep tabs on the movements of police, soldiers and rivals.

“We had incidents in stores that consisted of them (gangs) demanding we give them certain information, and they even abducted two colleagues to enforce this demand,” said Roberto Campa, Femsa’s director of corporate affairs.

In a statement Monday, Femsa said its stores in Nuevo Laredo remain closed this week “due to acts of violence that put our colleagues’ safety at risk.”

focused on smaller businesses

Cartel violence in Mexico has long been focused on smaller businesses, where owners often visit their shops and are easily abducted or approached by gang members to demand extortion payments. But Femsa is the largest soft drink bottler in Latin America and is listed on the Mexican stock exchange.

Nuevo Laredo has long been dominated by the Northeast Cartel – an offshoot of the old Zetas cartel – but the problem is starting to hit larger companies nationwide. Sectors ranging from agriculture, fishing and mining to consumer goods have been plagued by cartels trying to essentially take over their industries.

This week, the American Chamber of Commerce, whose members tend to be larger Mexican, American or multinational corporations, released a survey of its members in which 12 per cent of respondents said that “organised crime has taken partial control of the sales, distribution and/or pricing of their goods.”

That means drug cartels are distorting parts of Mexico’s economy, deciding who gets to sell a product and at what price – and in return they are apparently demanding sellers pass a percentage of sales revenue back to the cartel.

In the past, cartels have carried out violent attacks, arson and even killings of those found selling goods that had not been “authorised” by them or bought from distributors they control.

About half of the 218 companies in the American Chamber survey said that trucks carrying their products had suffered attacks, and 45 per cent of the companies said they had received extortion demands for protection payments.