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Mexico Businessman Killed After Decrying Growing Violence

Signage outside an OXXO convenience store in Mexico City, Mexico, on Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2023. Mexico low-cost airline company Volaris signed an agreement with Femsa Digital to offer their clients a loyalty program to accumulate and redeem points in all Oxxo stores in the country and through Volaris. Photographer: Jeoffrey Guillemard/Bloomberg (Jeoffrey Guillemard/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- The head of a local business chamber in the border city of Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, was murdered on Tuesday after denouncing growing violence in the area. 

Julio Almanza had given interviews to local and national media on Monday saying the chamber was worried by the state of business in Nuevo Laredo. “We’re hostages to extortions and criminal groups,” he said on a local news program. “Extorting has become a national sport in Tamaulipas.”

Nuevo Laredo is one of the busiest Mexico-US border crossings for goods and people, as the broader state of Tamaulipas is home to a wide array of industries, from electronics to petrochemicals and aerospace companies that usually truck over their goods to Laredo, Texas. 

Almanza was gunned down on Tuesday afternoon while parked outside his office by men who drove by on motorbikes and in a car, according to newspaper Reforma. The incident took place in Matamoros, another border city about four-and-a-half hours from Nuevo Laredo.

In the interviews, Almanza had spoken about the 191 Oxxo convenience stores and seven gas stations in Nuevo Laredo that were shut last week because parent company Fomento Economico Mexicano SAB, known as Femsa, was concerned about the safety of its workers. Two Oxxo workers were kidnapped recently by a group demanding they hand over sensitive information, Femsa’s head of corporate affairs Roberto Campa told newspaper La Jornada in an interview July 27. 

“We call on authorities so this act doesn’t remain unpunished and so all three levels of government work on efforts to guarantee the security and peace that our families deserve,” national business chamber Consejo Coordinador Empresarial said in a statement. “Mexico’s development and prosperity rely in great measure on a safe environment that’s essential for economic dynamism and to attract new investments.”

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador called Almanza’s murder “regrettable” in a press conference on Wednesday, adding “every murder hurts, and even more so when it’s an innocent person.”

He also said that the government has held meetings with the interior minister and federal authorities about the Oxxo closures. 

Femsa agreed to install panic buttons and external cameras in its Oxxo stores to help authorities identify criminals, according to a slide shown during the press conference. The company said it won’t reopen the stores due to the lack of safety conditions, according to the slide. 

Femsa will restart its operations in the region when the conditions are suitable, the company said in a statement, adding it’s in constant dialogue with authorities to guarantee its workers’ safety.

Last year, two American citizens were killed and one was injured in the city of Matamoros after crossing the border and being kidnapped by a criminal group. 

(Adds Femsa’s comment in paragraph 10.)

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