Extortion on the rise in Mexico

A simple telephone call has brought fear to the lives of many families in Mexico, as extortion is becoming one of the crimes that most impacts small business owners, professionals, entrepreneurs and society as a whole. From January to October, 6,635 extortion cases have been reported in Mexico after 4,484 cases were reported in all of 2012, according to the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Safety System (SESNSP). However, in 2011, an estimated 4.4 million reported and unreported cases of extortion were committed in the country, according to the 2012 National Survey of Victimization and the Perception of Public Safety by Mexico’s National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI). The difference arises because extortion isn’t usually reported to authorities, according to Leonel Fernández Novelo, an investigator with the México Evalúa Center for Public Policy Analysis. “[Extortions include] intimidating methods that range from telephone calls to visits made by armed personnel seeking money,” Fernández said.