CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico, Oct 22 (Reuters) - Businesses in a violent Mexican border city vowed on Wednesday to withhold taxes until the government provides security against drug gangs which have killed over 1,100 people in the town this year.

More than 400 professionals from small- and medium-sized companies ranging from law firms to pharmacy chains and auto parts dealerships protested outside a Finance Ministry building in Ciudad Juarez, complaining that drug cartel extortions were pushing them toward bankruptcy.

"We are not paying anything to the finance ministry. We've already seen 4,500 businesses close down this year because they can't pay the narcos. It's terrorism," said Arturo Corella, owner of autopart dealership chain.

Law and order has collapsed in Ciudad Juarez, located across the border from El Paso, Texas. It is Mexico's most violent city in a drug war that has killed more than 3,725 people nationwide this year.

Local drug baron Vicente Carrillo Fuentes is fighting Mexico's most-wanted man, Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman, head of the Pacific-coast Sinaloa cartel, for control of the city's smuggling routes into the United States. (Reporting by Arturo Perez; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

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