Versión Español
Although Mexican companies and their employees are frequent victims of corruption, robbery, and kidnapping, an increasingly common method of violence against them is extortion. On Tuesday, the leader of the employers association Coparmex, Juan Pablo Castañon, pointed out that businesses located in Tamaulipas, Michoacán, and Guerrero have suffered the consequences of criminal activity at the highest level.
Analysis by InsightCrime revealed that the popularity of extortion is increasing due to the “fragmentation of cartels and proliferation of smaller criminal groups,” which take advantage of Mexican companies to recover losses from drug trafficking.
However, these companies are not interested in spending a large percentage of their budgets in security. According to the Mexico’s American Chamber of Commerce, “Mexican businesses spent an average 4 percent of their operating budget on security in 2012, which is consistent with what other companies in Latin America spend and less than the 7 percent spent on average by US businesses.”
Castañon believes the government should do more to address the issue by coordinating federal and state forces, so that they may fight criminal activity more effectively.
Source: InsightCrime.
