𝗕𝗨𝗦𝗜𝗡𝗘𝗦𝗦𝗠𝗔𝗡'𝗦 𝗠𝗨𝗥𝗗𝗘𝗥 𝗥𝗘𝗦𝗨𝗟𝗧𝗦 𝗜𝗡 𝗖𝗟𝗢𝗦𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗢𝗙 𝟭𝟵𝟭 𝗢𝗫𝗫𝗢 𝗦𝗧𝗢𝗥𝗘𝗦 𝗜𝗡 𝗡𝗢𝗥𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗡 𝗠𝗘𝗫𝗜𝗖𝗢

 

Reacting to cartel violence certainly, but, more particularly to the murder of Chamber of Commerce and business leader Julio Almanza, 191 OXXO Stores have been closed in northern Mexico.

Julio Almanza

Almanza was executed just outside his Matamoros office, located next to an OXXO Store. just a day after being quoted about Mexican businesses being "hostages to extortion demands from criminal groups."

OXXO Stores are part of the huge Femsa Corporation, headquartered in Monterrey, Nuevo Laredo, also the parent company of Coca Cola of Mexico. (Mexican Nationals are the world's largest consumers of Coca-Cola with the country's 128M people drinking, on average, 634 8 oz bottles per year, 1.74 per day.)

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador

The President of Mexico, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, AMLO, seemed to put the burden on Mexico's businesses to stop the violence, suggesting they hire more in-store security guards, install panic buttons and cameras in stores.

This week, the Chamber of Commerce released a survey of its members in which 12% of respondents said that “organized 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 “authorized” by them or bought from distributors they control.

About half of the 218 companies in the U.S. Chamber of Commerce doing business in Mexico claimed in response to a survery that trucks carrying their products had suffered attacks, and 45% of the companies said they had received extortion demands for protection payments.

Of the companies that reported how much they had to spend on security measures, 58% said they spent between 2% and 10% of their total budgets on security; 4% spent at least a tenth of their total outlays on security measures.

On Tuesday, Femsa said in a statement that it was making progress in talks with authorities that might provide guarantees for the safety of its employees and allow the OXXO chain to reopen its stores in Nuevo Laredo.

Mexico’s powerful drug cartels have expanded their income sources by both extorting money from companies and even taking over legitimate businesses.

Drug cartels had have long since taken over exports of iron ore from the western state of Michoacan, and the ore trade while also controlling production and manipulating domestic prices for crops like avocados and limes.

And late last year, authorities confirmed one cartel had set up its own makeshift internet system, "narco-antennas," and told locals they had to pay $30 USD to use its Wi-Fi service or face cartel reprisal.