海角大神

When the phone rang at a small community center in a poor Mexico City suburb, the voice on the other end of the line belonged to a member of the criminal group, La Familia Michoacana 鈥� or so the caller claimed. He was demanding money, and when the director of the center, Ra煤l Sol铆s Pineda, said he had none, the extortionist said he wasn't asking for "millions" and that Mr. Sol铆s Pineda must pay.

This type of call is common in Ciudad Nezahualc贸yotl, or Neza, as the locals refer to it. The poor municipality is located in the State of Mexico, which wraps around three sides of Mexico City. It had the highest number of reported extortions in 2013 鈥� a year when that crime surged in the country as a whole.聽

Although Mexico's President Enrique Pe帽a Nieto has pointed to successes in his country鈥檚 fight against organized crime, extortion has become more common, as has kidnapping. In fact, the number of reported incidences for both of these crimes was higher in 2013 than any other year in the last decade. The small sums frequently demanded in these anonymous calls, as well as their unknown origin, often mean police are slow to react 鈥� if they pursue the allegation at all.

Some citizens have responded by taking up arms against criminal organizations, most notably in the state of Michoac谩n. After receiving his extortion threat, Sol铆s Pineda also decided to respond 鈥� but with the law, rather than guns.

There were 8,042 cases of extortion reported in Mexico in 2013, , according to statistics from Mexico's federal government. In the State of Mexico, which features numerous poor Mexico City suburbs, there were 1,668 reported cases, a 58 percent increase from 2012.

Data from January indicates the increase is ongoing, with the extortion rate nearly matching 2013 for both the country and the State of Mexico. Tracking crime is an imperfect science, statisticians acknowledge, because victims may become more or less willing to report an incident from one year to the next. But for Sol铆s Pineda, "all the time, there's more insecurity, more fear" in his community.

In contrast, the country's murder rate dropped more than 16 percent in 2013, according to government statistics, as turf wars between cartels lessened in areas such as the northern border city of Juarez.

"There has been progress [in Mexico], a real decrease of almost 30 percent for homicides linked to organized crime," President Pe帽a Nieto said in January at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. He did not mention incidents of extortion or kidnapping.

The government鈥檚 National Security Commission operates an emergency hotline whose website asks anyone who has been a victim of a crime to contact them. After the threat at the community center, Sol铆s Pineda says he did, but the operator told him to call again when he had something bigger to report.

"They simply ignored it," Sol铆s Pineda says. 聽

Economic reverberations

The victims aren't always typical targets.聽Thirty students from the University of La Salle Nezahualc贸yotl after enduring extortion and kidnapping threats the previous semester, according to a report from the Mexican newspaper El Universal.

Extortion has real economic impact, says Francisco Rivas, the director of聽Observatorio Nacional Ciudadano, a聽Mexico City-based think tank that studies crime and security. In a report published last month,聽Mr. Rivas wrote that extortion discourages community investment by small and medium-sized businesses.

鈥淚n addition, these illicit behaviors endanger regional and national economic development,鈥� Rivas wrote. According to the report,聽鈥淎nalysis of Extortion in Mexico 1997-2013: Challenges and Opportunities," it isn鈥檛 just well-known organized criminal groups involved, but also smaller gangs, and in some cases, the police.

In Mexico, criminal gangs 鈥渉ave diversified their criminal portfolios and draw much of their income from local revenue sources such as drug peddling in the 鈥� local drug market and extortion," Steven Dudley, director of Insight Crime, which writes on organized crime in the Americas, told US Congress last year.

Getting 'desperate?'

For Sol铆s Pineda, simply hoping extortion dies down isn鈥檛 an option, and he is now working to goad Nezahualc贸yotl residents into action. After the federal police dismissed his report, Sol铆s Pineda drafted a petition demanding an official response to the increasing insecurity in his city.

He cited kidnappings and shootings, in addition to extortion, collected 103 signatures 鈥� out of Nezahualc贸yotl鈥檚 million-plus residents 鈥� and submitted the petition to the city鈥檚 mayor.

鈥淚t鈥檚 not an isolated incident, it鈥檚 a social problem,鈥� he says.

City police officers met with him two weeks later, but the focus was on his individual allegation 鈥� not the bigger problem. He鈥檚 now urging residents to call on all levels of the government to take action.

鈥淎re you going to allow the different branches of the government to let this situation get as desperate as in Michoac谩n?" the letter asks, referring to the state where vigilante groups rose up against criminal gangs in a vacuum of state involvement this year. 聽