"No I won't pay you, I don't care that you have my hand submerged in the deep fat fryer and my wife held hostage, I will not pay you a bribe Mr. Zeta"
Yeah... I hear what you are saying V, but will have to say it is not that simple.... One of my friends was receiving threatening calls regarding his children - they knew what school they went to, where they were, what they were wearing, etc... Until at a minimum there is a police force that can be trusted people will continue to pay up. I know I would.
Mat, the argument that both you and Elle seem to me to be making is that people in that situation have no choice but to pay, but I see that as only one of several possible responses to a demand for protection money, and the easiest path to follow, in the short run. As a big admirer of personal courage, I would try to find a different solution.
I think business owners don't have an option. In other countries the police protect people including business owners - here they are just as inclined to rob from you. If the zetas were threatening to kill my children I would gladly pay - these guys don't f**k about. I see business people having the option: Do I open a business and pay the zetas or do I not open a business at all. Scenario: V is in his store selling his wares. Zetas walk in with guns and machetes and tell him he has to pay or the will do horrible things to his wife, who they know works at x and leaves to work at x time in the morning etc. What does V do?
Hudson, I suppose your question is argumentative, because some of the alternatives are obvious to all: none come without a price, that's why they require courage. Mexico is not the only place where people are confronted by extortion, and other crimes directed against their businesses. I'm more impressed with the ones that resist; for example, the convenience store owner in a bad part of town in El Paso, Texas, who got fed up with being held up and merely filing police reports. At a greatly increased personal risk to himself, he determined to keep a gun handy and shoot anyone who demanded his money by threat of force. By the time I'd left El Paso, and over about a twelve year period of time, he'd killed the third would be robber who had brandished a weapon and demanded his money. In the same situation, many would have simply continued to hand over the money, each time they were asked. He chose a harder and riskier but more courageous path, and to my way of thinking that's what life calls for. The details are different in Mexico- the issue, as I see it, the same. With that, and by your leave, I'll bow out of further discussion and comment on this.
The way I see it V is that you have not provided any viable alternative to paying them, nor do you have any ideas of a viable alternative to paying them. A business person shooting people here would be in a serious amount of trouble. Your comments started this discussion, and it seems unlike your usual self to close with an "I'm taking my ball and going home" kind of response. I for one am interested to here a viable alternative to not paying them.
OK, Mat, but you're looking for a concrete proposal, when what I'm suggesting is resourcefulness and courage in the face of threats. There is no risk free way to handle these situations: you take a physical risk on behalf of yourself or family, or you take a risk with your sense of self. Either way you pay a price, but this story is as old as mankind, and the challenge is the same. As for the concrete example I gave of personal courage, and a refusal to be intimidated- even if it led to the shop owner's death- it is just that, an example of personal courage, and the exercise of choice.
