Why burn an OXXO?

  

When I mention to somebody in the UK that we spend a lot of time in Mexico, one of two comments follows. The first is: Cancún? The second is: Isn’t Mexico very dangerous?

 

My answers are that I have only been once to Cancún, in about 1975, before it became the frightful mega-resort that it now is; and that, yes personal safety is an important concern in Mexico, but although members of our family have visited Mexico many times for more than 50 years, none of us has yet been harmed. I sometimes add that an acquaintance once asked me (we were visiting the Paricutín volcano in Michoacán) if I was worried for my safety in London because he had heard that knife crime was very prevalent.

 

I have heard gunshots only once in my now 74 years, one Sunday in calle Mexicali, Colonia Condesa, in Mexico City. A young neighbour in a nearby apartment building had borrowed a gun to warn off a worker in the building who had been pestering the young man’s sister. The confrontation became heated and the young man shot his antagonist several times. I stayed home that day. Once in a while, I would learn of a shooting in Mexico City through conversations or reading the press. Casual violence was not uncommon in 1970s Mexico, but I did not feel threatened. My travels in Guerrero obliged me to be somewhat more cautious, since there was fighting in the mountains between guerrillas and the army.

 

By 2018, when Jan and I spent three months in Zamora, Michoacán, at the Colegio de Michoacán, organized crime had created a much more severe level of violence. Before we left I consulted a man on the Mexico desk of the Foreign Office, who gave me some useful advice. After we had been in Zamora for several weeks, we learned one day that a local crime boss had been arrested, and as retaliation his fighters had stopped some buses, ordered passengers off, and burned the vehicles. Our small local supermarket was attacked with a fire bomb, but it caused little damage. We only learned of this after the event when the owner of our rented apartment told us what had happened. Otherwise, we led normal lives, in the library, attending seminars, walking around town and eating in restaurants and cafés. However, we only left town if we were taken by local colleagues, or if friends told us that the risk of encountering crime was low. Occasionally we were advised not to undertake a visit, to Uruapan, for example. But mostly we lived life as normal and enjoyed being part of a community for a time.

 

In 2026, however, organized crime violence, briefly affected the life of a Jacobs. On 22 February the Mexican armed forces, apparently acting on intelligence from the US government, apprehended Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, alias El Mencho, who died from gunshot wounds. El Mencho was the head man of the Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG), currently the most powerful crime syndicate in Mexico; in effect an international enterprise that operates across continents. One of El Mencho’s senior lieutenants is the boss of Puerto Vallarta, where our son Chris lives.

"Mug shots" of El Mencho under arrest in San Francisco 1886 and 1889.

A US Department of Justice wanted poster for El Mencho.

Chris began our regular Sunday Zoom session the next day with the words “We are under attack.” From the balcony of his apartment, with views across the Bahía de Banderas, plumes of smoke could be seen. CJNG men were emptying and burning buses and cars, and businesses. Perhaps the most targeted business was the convenience store chain OXXO, and its lesser rival Kiosko. These shops supply a wide range of generally unhealthy food, with an emphasis on crisps and beers. They also sell some household basics such as milk, eggs, a very limited range of vegetables and fruit, detergents and so on. Most Mexican, and many foreign, residents frequently buy something from an OXXO. The hijackings and burnings lasted for the day, and by Monday it was time to clear up. Chris’s partner Kourtney is a teacher; her school remained closed for several days, but Chris returned to work on Tuesday as normal (he does not work Mondays). He stopped for petrol at a service station where there was a burned out OXXO. The woman who sold him his petrol reported that on Sunday a group of young men had arrived, asked the employees of the OXXO and the petrol station to leave, reassured the petrol station workers that their business would not be harmed, and then poured petrol around the OXXO and lit it.

An Oxxo store in Oaxaca.

 When Chris arrived at work at the botanic garden, he found a group of Canadian tourists being served breakfast. They had been on a bus travelling to the airport on Sunday. The bus was stopped close to the garden, its passengers ordered off, and the bus burned. The garden workers on duty invited the Canadians into their building and gave them shelter and meals for two days. After breakfast on Tuesday, they ordered taxis for their visitors and waved them off.

 

We also heard that the staff of a hotel in the centre of Puerto Vallarta that has no restaurant ventured out in the midst of the violence to find food for their guests. Not all Mexicans are, contrary to the statements of D J Trump, bad people; they can be very generous indeed.

 

I read an article that asked why so many OXXOS were attacked (especially in the state of Jalisco), but also elsewhere. Apparently, the OXXO management refuses to pay protection money and has elaborate security plans. This may have been one reason why so many OXXO stores were attacked, but so were Kioskos and some larger stores such as Costco. I suspect that the sheer ubiquity and visibility of OXXOs was also a reason (there are apparently as many as 22,000 in Mexico, perhaps some 1,500 in Jalisco). Fortunately, it seems that nobody in Puerto Vallarta was killed or injured.

 

The cartel probably has the firepower to inflict far greater violence and terror on the people of Mexico than was the case on 23 February. The objective seems to have been to demonstrate forcefully the power of the cartel and to warn the government not to take further action by targeting things that are highly visible fixtures of everyday life for most Mexicans: convenience stores and public transport.

 

I have often asked Mexican friends in Vallarta how they explain the city’s relative calm, in contrast, for example, to Acapulco, Guerrero, a much older resort which is now a decidedly dangerous place. They usually reply that there is only one cartel in town, so there are no turf wars (as has occurred, for example, in Chilpancingo, the state capital of Guerrero). However, the same friends often comment that a new narco business has opened in a certain neighbourhood, perhaps a bar or a restaurant. When I ask them why they think this might be a narco business, they reply that it is open for very long hours, even when there are no customers. The main function of the business is to launder cash, so profit or loss is not particularly important. I have also read that the boom in condominiums sold to overseas owners is another way for the CJNG cartel to legalize its cash.

I must confess that we have been shaken by the events of 23 February – we will no doubt be more cautious when we next visit Chris and Kourtney, but the CJNG’s revenge will not deter us from our next planned stay.