San Miguel de Allende: Extortion Shuts Down Cantinas in Historic El Centro

Yaqui for Borderland Beat from: MND +Aristegui

                         Crime gang extortion closes bars in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato
Five cantinas in the historic center preferred shutting down to complying with extortion demands 

San Miguel de Allende , Guanajuato, is one of the tourist destinations in Mexico that have been best positioned for both domestic and foreign visitors ;  however, several businesses have suffered from a wave of extortion and for that reason have been forced to close their premises.

They are bad times in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato. In the last 10 months,  the town with a large population of American and Canadian Expats has suffered a wave of violence that has left 70 dead, including two municipal police officers and two women aged 14 and 20.

Although the officials of municipality of San Miguel de Allende denied that there are extortions to the canteens of the historic center of the city, the owners live in fear of being victims of organized crime, because they received suitcases with drugs and threats allegedly signed by the Santa Rosa cartel from Lima.

Notimex had access to one of the extortion notes that were left in the cantinas of the town center, and it specifies that two suitcases were delivered with 100 doses of marijuana and 100 of cocaine, with a value of 28 thousand pesos, and they will come for the money for it  twice a week .

“Since if you do not obey these conditions a corrective will be given. Sincreley: Mr. Marro from Santa Rosa de Lima ”, reads in the handwritten note on a notebook sheet, which even contains a phone number.

Bar owners who spoke to the newspaper El Universal on the condition of anonymity say that suitcases filled with marijuana and cocaine were left in their premises three weeks ago, accompanied by notes saying they had between 22 days and a month to sell the drugs.

The owners preferred to throw the drugs away and close their bars before the deadline. At least five located in the historic center of San Miguel have closed down because of the threats, leaving at least 80 people without jobs.

The owners also said they did not report the extortion to the authorities because of fear of retaliation similar to that which took place earlier this month in the nearby city of Celaya. On August 5, after Celaya business owners staged a demonstration to protest extortion, businesses were attacked, ie shot up and four people were killed.

Violence has been on the rise in San Miguel de Allende,  a city that was chosen by Travel & Leisure magazine as the top travel destination in the western hemisphere in 2019.

Celaya under siege of the cartels:

In the municipality of Celaya , merchants fear for their lives . On Monday, August 5, at 5:00 p.m. an armed command entered the tortilla "La Indita" and shot the three women who were in the place : the owner, Virginia "N", 60, and the employees Dalinda "N" and Martha Cecilia "N". All died.

The attack was allegedly perpetrated by extortionists , since the owner of the tortilleria had not paid the flat collection/ extortion fee. The criminals probably belong to the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel .

Some time later that same afternoon, another group of armed people shot at a business selling construction materials called "La Fortaleza" , where one person was killed and another injured. Almost simultaneously, two more businesses were attacked on Adolfo López Mateos Boulevard.

The NGO Semáforo Delictivo registered 49 homicides in the municipality in the first six months of the year, compared to 15 in the same period last year. And according to federal statistics, high-impact crimes like residential burglary have gone up 36%.

According to the organization More Security in San Miguel de Allende, there have been 72 murders in the city this year, and the rise in crime is related to the federal government’s crackdown on fuel theft in the state.

Anonymously, for fear of reprisals, merchants declared that they preferred to close their business before the deadline that came in the handwritten note on a notebook sheet, which, in some cases, was up to one month.

Likewise, they have not denounced the fact before the authorities, and they only chose to throw away the bags with the illegal substances and close their businesses. At least 80 people working in these sites lost their jobs.

The five canteens that remain closed in the Historic Center of San Miguel de Allende are located on the streets Canal , Hidalgo , Mesones , Insurgentes , Hernández Macías and Relox , where many national and foreign tourists travel.