Shortchanged Municipal Treasuries Put Mayors Under the Gangster Gun Dudley Althaus - GlobalPost
go to original October 12, 2013

Mexico, Latin America’s second-largest economy, is one of the region’s stingiest countries when it comes to the share of public revenue that goes to mayors’ coffers.

Now, the shortchanged municipal treasuries are being sucked drier by gangsters’ demands for public works contracts and a cut of everything spent by city halls.

... Municipal officials have occupied the more vulnerable trenches in the government's nearly seven-year US-backed war against drug cartels that's killed more than 70,000 people and left many thousands more missing or presumed dead.

Poorly paid, armed, trained and vetted, Mexico's local police forces prove easy for the gangs to bend or break. Left to fend for themselves, even honest mayors and city councils are forced to cede contracts to the gangs’ preferred companies. Many pay extortion to the gangsters.

Read the rest at GlobalPost

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