Violence boosts Mexico's armored-car industry
Source: Reuters
MEXICO CITY, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Mexico's armored-car makers predict 2007 will be a record year, their business boosted by reports of severed heads and heavily armed drug gangs murdering police. "This country is already among the top three markets for armoring in North and South America. Armored cars are here to stay," said Esteban Hernandez, head of Mexico's association of armored vehicle producers. With dozens killed in drug gang-related violence each month, the association predicted on Tuesday that 2007 would be a record year, making Mexico one of the world's top markets for armor-plating cars. Since taking office on Dec. 1, President Felipe Calderon has heightened tensions by ordering the army and federal police into states in the west and north of the country to hunt down drug traffickers too powerful for local police to handle. The sales of armored cars in those states have shot up. Hernandez predicted armored vehicle sales of at least 1,600 in 2007, adding to the more than 10,000 steel-plated cars already on the country's roads. Armor-plating can add more than a ton to a car's weight and shield it from damage by weapons ranging from pistols to assault rifles. At a cost of $20,000 to $80,000, a vehicle's body lining and windows are ripped out and replaced with bullet-proof materials. Mexico counted more than 2,000 gangland-style killings last year, including grisly decapitations. Killings in northern and western states have continued at the same rate this year. Armored cars have long been popular among Mexico's drug kingpins and wealthy industrialists fearful of kidnappings, but Hernandez told Reuters they were now catching on with ordinary people scared of random violence. He said an assassination attempt on a Mexican congressman on Monday was the type of crime armor plating could prevent. "If he had had the right armor ... These attacks used to be more selective and now, maybe because the authorities are applying more pressure, people are realizing they could be in a situation they didn't plan for," Hernandez said. The American Chamber of Commerce said on Tuesday that U.S. companies in Mexico spend 5 percent of their funds on security, investment better directed at creating jobs and development.
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