15/04/2011. GUADALAJARA, JALISCO.- The Business Sector of Jalisco perceives a greater harassment of organized crime and crimes of the common jurisdiction. This occurs in several modalities, the most predominant being the incidence of extortion attempts, as in the field of trade.
Despite the risk situations that exist at the moment in the environment of Jalisco, things have not reached extreme limits, such as to close companies for this reason, but the daily way of life for entrepreneurs has been complicated, while security expenses are increased and routines in work activities are altered.
In this regard, the president of the National Chamber of Commerce of Guadalajara (Canaco), Miguel Alfaro Aranguren, said that "telephone extortion is practically the order of the day." However, he said that traders have sharpened the criteria to detect that such calls do not involve serious danger, or to report them to the authorities if a risk situation is perceived.
However, this leader stressed that at the moment the companies that have closed have been due to factors derived from the economic environment, especially due to unfair competition from informal activities, rather than factors linked to security.
He also said that it has been known that recently, there was a negative streak of extortion attempts in the Tequila region, which fortunately improved significantly in recent times.
For his part, the state president of the Employers' Confederation of the Mexican Republic (Coparmex), Óscar Benavides Reyes, commented that "I have heard that in the country there is the problem of extortion of companies by criminals who demand quotas. I have no complaints about it, hopefully I won't even hear them. We don't want that in Jalisco."
However, he acknowledged that "in the Los Altos region there is a hot security environment recently. There we have partners in several locations, such as Tepatitlán, Capilla de Guadalupe and Arandas."
No complaints of extortion: Nájera
Separately, the head of the Secretariat of Public Security of Jalisco, Luis Carlos Nájera, said categorically that at the moment there are no formal complaints.
On journalistic versions and urban legends that since the death of drug trafficker Ignacio Coronel, problems of greater incidence of extortion attempts have been generated in several regions of the State, such as in Los Altos, he responded "that it would be very regrettable if the burden of security were left to a criminal."
According to testimonies from various business organizations, Nájera said that at the moment there is not a single complaint due to extortion or security quotas against Jalisco businessmen.
Source: informador.com.mx
