Pubdate: Mon, 17 Nov 2008
Source: New York Times (NY)
Page: A1, Front Page
Copyright: 2008 The New York Times Company
Contact:  http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: Marc Lacey
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Mexico
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Felipe+Calderon

FOR MEXICO'S WEALTHY, EXPENSES INCLUDE GUARDS

MEXICO CITY -- When Jose hops into his Ferrari, presses his Ferragamo 
loafer to the floor and fills the night air with a deep roar, his 
bodyguards hustle into a black sport utility vehicle with their 
weapons at the ready, tailing their fast-moving boss through the streets.

Jose, a business magnate in his 30s who said he was afraid to have 
his full name published, makes sure his two children get the same 
protection. Bodyguards pick them up from school and escort them even 
to friends' birthday parties -- where the bodyguards meet other 
bodyguards, because many of the children's classmates have similar protection.

With drug-related violence spinning out of control and kidnappings a 
proven money-maker for criminal gangs, members of Mexico's upper 
class find themselves juggling the spoils of their status with the 
fear of being killed.

Dinner party chatter these days focuses on two things that are making 
their lives, still the envy of the country's masses, far less 
enviable: the financial crisis, which is chipping away at their 
wealth, and the wave of insecurity, which is making it more perilous 
for them to enjoy what remains.

Mexico's violence afflicts both rich and poor, but the nation's 
income gap is so pronounced that criminals scour the society pages 
for potential kidnapping victims, for whom they demand, and often 
receive, huge sums in ransom. A recent report by the Organization for 
Economic Cooperation and Development found that Mexico had the 
largest divide between rich and poor of the group's 30 member 
nations, virtually assuring that wealthy targets stand out.

Wealthy Mexicans have long hired bodyguards, but experts say the 
numbers of those seeking protection have jumped since President 
Felipe Calderon challenged the drug cartels, bringing unprecedented 
levels of related violence -- which had been mainly confined to the 
areas bordering the United States -- into the major cities.

High-profile and sometimes gruesome crimes have stoked people's fears.

In one of the worst cases, a 5-year-old boy from a poor family was 
plucked from a gritty market this month and killed by kidnappers, who 
injected acid into his heart.

Early this month, white-coated doctors in Tijuana protested after one 
of their own, a prominent kidney specialist, was plucked from outside 
his office by heavily armed men. He has since been released.

"It's out of control," said Dr. Hector Rico, the leader of the local 
medical association.

Confronted by the irate doctors at a public meeting, Jose Guadalupe 
Osuna Millan, the governor of Baja California State, said the answer 
to the rising insecurity was to come together and fight.

"We're not going to cede one millimeter of territory to these 
criminals," he said of the federal government's war on drug traffickers.

But hundreds of well-off families along the border have become so 
consumed by their fears that they have moved out of Mexico, at least 
temporarily, often using business visas granted because of their work 
in the United States.

"It's a bad feeling to have to leave your country behind," said 
Javier, a prosperous Tijuana businessman, who moved his family across 
the border to San Diego last year after a group of armed men tried to 
kidnap him. "But I didn't really have a choice." He insisted that his 
last name not be used, out of fear that criminals might track him.

"There's an exodus, and it's all about insecurity," said Guillermo 
Alonso Meneses, an anthropologist at the Colegio de la Frontera Norte 
in Tijuana. "A psychosis has developed. There's fear of getting 
kidnapped or killed.

"People don't want to live that way," he continued, "and those who 
can afford it move north."

Still, most of the wealthy have chosen to stay put, hiring armies of 
protectors to continue enjoying their gilded lives.

Although there are few firm figures for the number of Mexicans 
employed to guard their fellow citizens -- most security companies 
ignore requirements to register with the government -- experts say 
business is booming for the estimated 10,000 security companies 
operating in the country.

In the border state of Chihuahua, the Mexican Employers' Association 
recently reported a 300 percent increase in the number of bodyguards. 
In that violence-torn state, some luxury hotels now offer their 
guests bodyguards and bulletproof vehicles.

For many affluent families, the guards and bulletproof cars, homes 
and even clothing have become a way of life. Some Mexicans say the 
protection has even become a status symbol.

In Mexico City, some people being protected by men wearing earpieces 
strut along in designer clothes, using their armed guards to clear a path.

A stylish woman at a Starbucks in the well-off Coyoacan neighborhood 
held out her cappuccino the other day while chatting with friends. A 
member of her two-man security detail discreetly slipped a cardboard 
sleeve on the cup so that the woman's fingertips were protected, 
along with the rest of her.

"It's a different life," said Jose, the well-protected Ferrari 
driver, who agreed to provide a glimpse of that life. "I've gotten used to it."

Indeed, Jose hands out designer clothing and other expensive gifts to 
his family's two dozen or so bodyguards and invites them to his 
mother's house weekly for a meal. He is being benevolent but also 
practical, given that many crimes in Mexico are inside jobs.

"I want them to feel like they're part of the family," he said. "And 
if something happens to me, I want them to react. They won't risk 
their life for a paycheck. They will risk their life for a friend, for family."

Some security consultants and academics point out that at least the 
upper crust has options, while other Mexicans must rely on law 
enforcement agencies, known for their corruption and ineffectiveness, 
to protect them from the violence. Many families who struggle to make 
ends meet find their loved ones grabbed for ransom. And shootouts 
between traffickers and the police and soldiers pursuing them erupt 
with no regard for the income level of bystanders.

"There's reason for everyone to be fearful," said Dr. Alonso, the 
Tijuana anthropologist, who hears gunfire at night in his 
middle-class neighborhood and, like many others, rarely ventures out 
after dark.

Despite Jose's expensive clothing, eye-catching jewelry and luxury 
home in the hills, he insists that his family is different from many 
others in their income bracket.

"We're not nouveau riche," he said with a huff. "Those people want 
guards to show how important they are."

As for the Ferrari, which he acknowledged is the opposite of 
discreet, Jose said it was the car's engine that attracted him to it. 
"It's not to sit back and have everyone look at me," he said. "It's to drive."

But people do gawk. And Jose's bodyguards worry about the attention 
his rare sports car attracts on the roads of Mexico.

"Of course, he shouldn't be driving himself," one of Jose's 
bodyguards said. "But he's like a presidential candidate who likes to 
go into crowds. Our function is to provide the security around the 
life he's living."

That life includes late-night stops at exclusive nightclubs and 
humble taco shops. Jose understands what he puts his guards through, 
because he completed bodyguard training in Guatemala to learn what 
his employees should be doing.

Jose also conducts background checks before hiring his bodyguards and 
sends them for regular refresher courses, meaning they are a cut 
above the run-of-the-mill Mexican bodyguard, who might be a washout 
police officer or soldier with modest training and little discipline 
for the job.

Javier, the businessman who now lives north of the border, said he 
did not believe bodyguards were the answer.

"One bodyguard, two bodyguards, even three of them can't do anything 
with these criminals, who come in groups of 20 with high-powered 
arms," he said. "If they want to hunt you down, they will get you."

Even Jose is taking a break from Mexico. He recently headed to Canada 
with his family, for what he insisted was a respite rather than an 
abandonment of his country.

"I'm not running away," he said. "I have an opportunity, and I'll be 
back. But I'm not going to miss the insecurity. Not at all."

Especially appealing, he said, was that his 6-year-old son would be 
able to ride his bike to school instead of being escorted in a 
bulletproof vehicle driven by a private paramilitary force.

"For my children, they don't understand," Jose said. "They're happy 
to have these guys around. When they get out of school, there's 
someone to take their backpack. There's always someone around to 
play. I try to teach them that this isn't normal. It shouldn't be this way." 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake