In Mexico’s crime-ridden Ecatepec, gangs sell ‘protection’ while merchants pay to survive

Nevin Al Sukari - Sana'a - Aerial view of Ecatepec, a densely populated city in the State of Mexico, on October 2, 2025. Behind barred stalls, merchants live in fear as gangs that extort them operate with impunity. Many now fear reprisals after nearly being beaten to death a suspected extortionist who had been terrorising them. — AFP pic

ECATEPEC, Oct 8 — Standing behind their counters, shielded by metal grilles to prevent attacks, merchants in the Mexico City suburb of Ecatepec watch anxiously as gangs that hold them to ransom roam the streets outside.

Across Latin America, extortion is throttling local economies and authorities in Mexico, where every hour someone is shaken down by a criminal gang, are on the warpath against it.

In Ecatepec, bakers, mechanics, and street vendors told AFP they pay fees to gangs to not attack them—and to protect them from rival criminal outfits.

The extortion thrives on a climate of near-total impunity, with gangs openly promoting their “protection” services in shop windows and on social media.

Next to a market, a poster advertises the services of La Chokiza, a gang accused by authorities of extortion and murder.

“Join our big family,” the poster says.

“We’ll protect you from extortion,” it adds, listing its services, including “legal advice”—a euphemism for the protection rackets they claim to defend against.

La Chokiza also promotes itself on Facebook, with a cartoon of Jesus Christ on a motorcycle as its logo.

In Ecatepec’s market, gangs with such innocuous names as Peaceful Civil Resistance brand their territory by getting their “customers” to display stickers on their stalls.

“They’re supposed to protect you in exchange for a certain sum,” a 53-year-old vendor told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.

From fury to fear 

President Claudia Sheinbaum has talked up her record on bringing down Mexico’s sky-high murder rate since taking office a year ago but she admits that she has been powerless to curb extortion, most cases of which go unreported.

In Ecatepec, where 90 percent of its 1.6 million residents say they feel unsafe, according to official statistics, a group of merchants tired of being fleeced took the law into their own hands in July.

They attacked a man who threatened to burn down their businesses, kicking him and hitting him with a steel pipe, videos posted on social media showed.

Police rescued the man, covered in blood, and charged him with extortion.

But now the merchants now live in fear of retaliation.

“We don’t want to know anything about it anymore,” an agitated vendor told an AFP journalist probing the punishment beating.

Such attacks have become increasingly common in Mexico, where the state has been powerless to end an epidemic of grisly violence by drug cartels.

An investigation by the Monterrey Institute of Technology documented over 2,000 cases of vigilante lynchings in the past decades.

One of the most shocking cases occurred in 2023 in the town of Texcaltitlan, southwest of Mexico City, where residents ambushed a group of extortionists in clashes that left 14 people dead.

Texcaltitlan and Ecatepec are both part of the State of Mexico, which accounts for a third of all extortion cases in the country.

Sheinbaum has pushed through a reform giving the authorities more tools to fight the shakedowns, including a telephone line for anonymous complaints.

As part of the offensive, La Chokiza’s leader Alejandro Mendoza was arrested on September 12 in Ecatepec.

Days earlier, he had released a video showing himself surrounded by Batman toys and boasting of having “more than 10,000” customers.

Cellphone tormentors 

As in Colombia and Venezuela, extortion rackets in Mexico are often the work of drug trafficking syndicates keen to supplement their income.

But small-time criminals also get in on the act, intimidating people and demanding money over the phone, sometimes from their prison cell.

“Their tool is a cellphone,” Alfredo Almora, head of victim assistance for the federal security ministry, told AFP.

The market vendor in Ecatepec, who was a victim of cellphone extortion eight months ago, said “they instill such terror in you” that “it traumatizes you.”

Mexicans’ fear of reporting their tormentors is not the only obstacle to securing justice.

Some suspect the authorities of being in cahoots with the mafia.

“Sometimes, you don’t trust them,” the market vendor added. —AFP