Julio César Almanza Armas was murdered hours after criticizing the insecurity faced by businesses in Tamaulipas. Weeks earlier, Minerva Pérez Castro was killed for the same reason in Baja California

Business leaders in Mexico are in the crosshairs of organized crime, which has diversified its business activities  and now affects all links in the production chain: from agricultural activity to the distribution and sale of products. And those who speak out pay for it with their lives.

Julio César Almanza Armas, the president of the Chamber of Commerce of the Mexican states of Tamaulipas and Matamoros, was killed on Tuesday afternoon after a dozen bullets were fired at his car’s window. His last public words have drawn attention: “Businesspeople are hostages of criminal gangs and extortion has practically become a national sport,” he said on Telediario Radio in Tampico.