Extortion backed by violence has led to the closure of 170 bars, restaurants and night clubs across Mexico, and last year caused a 40% fall in the number of customers, according to the Asociación Nacional de la Industria de las Discotecas, Bares y Centros de Espectáculos, which represents 4,500 establishments countrywide. The newspaper Reforma has tallied 263 deaths in attacks on bars, restaurants and casinos since 2008, of which 58% were recorded in the first eight months of this year.
Israel Rivera, director of the association, says that his members have had to dismiss 12,000 workers, and that the insecurity has caused losses of more than M$438m (US$31.46m). He said that the extortionists identify themselves as members of La Familia Michoacana (an organisation which has broken up), the Sinaloa cartel or ‘other criminal organisations’, but that among them there are opportunists who play on the prevailing state of fear. Rivera says that most of the attacks on his members have taken place in Chihuahua, Coahuila and Nuevo León, plus another six states. The association of gambling establishments say that some casinos have closed down in Monterrey, Guadalajara, and Mexico City.
They demand up to M$300,000 (US$21,550) a month for ‘protection’ and threaten owners and personnel with violence or the torching of their establishments if they do not pay.
Reforma counted 16 fatalities in attacks on catering and entertainment establishments in 2008; 56 in 2009; 38 in 2010; and 153 in January-August 2011. The latter toll was much influenced by four events: the arson attack on the Casino Royale in Monterrey (52 killed), and the attacks on three bars — El Sabino Gordo (Monterrey, 21 killed), Ferries (Torreón, Coahuila, 10) and Juanas (Torreón, 8).
The newspaper presented its tally with the strapline, ‘Onslaught by organised crime against hundreds of innocent civilians’. It did not, however, discriminate between the victims who had resisted extortion, those targeted by a rival gang, and the ‘collateral’ victims of attacks on the first two groups. The most notable case of the latter were those killed in the Casino Royale fire, who do not seem to have been the intended targets of the attackers but were trapped because only one emergency exit was available.
As the authorities announced an investigation into this aspect of the Casino Royale incident [SSR-11-08], the federal interior ministry revealed that throughout Mexico there were at least 60 casinos operating without full formal authorisation. In seven cases the purported authorisation is under investigation; in 10 the establishments are under ‘jurisdictional suspension’; and in 43 they have benefited from ‘regulatory exemptions’.
At present, the ministry said, only 27 people have been granted permits to operate casinos in the country. There are 306 casinos across Mexico, the highest concentrations being in Mexico City (36), Baja California (31) and Nuevo León (30).
On 29 August the governor of Nuevo León, Rodrigo Medina, announced the arrest of five suspected members of Los Zetas thought to have been involved in the torching of the Casino Royale. He said that investigators believe the Zetas had been extorting money from the owners of the establishment. The Casino Royale said the attack had been a reprisal for their refusal to pay ‘a drug cartel’ an instalment of US$140,000.
