{"id":4239,"date":"2023-03-30T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-03-30T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mundovideo.com.co\/en\/opinion\/casinos-and-small-commerce-in-barranquilla-between-extortion-and-fear\/"},"modified":"2023-03-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-03-30T00:00:00","slug":"casinos-and-small-commerce-in-barranquilla-between-extortion-and-fear","status":"publish","type":"opinion","link":"https:\/\/www.mundovideo.com.co\/en\/opinion\/casinos-and-small-commerce-in-barranquilla-between-extortion-and-fear\/","title":{"rendered":"Casinos and small commerce in Barranquilla between extortion and fear"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-family:Arial,serif\"><span style=\"font-size:large\">Extortion in the Atlantic became a monumental headache.<\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family:Arial,serif\"><span style=\"font-size:large\"> <\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family:Arial,serif\"><span style=\"font-size:large\">Barranquilla and Soledad constitute its theater of operations.<\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family:Arial,serif\"><span style=\"font-size:large\"> <\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family:Arial,serif\"><span style=\"font-size:large\">Which is not random.<\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family:Arial,serif\"><span style=\"font-size:large\"> <\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family:Arial,serif\"><span style=\"font-size:large\">Here is concentrated almost the entire departmental GDP.<\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family:Arial,serif\"><span style=\"font-size:large\"> <\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family:Arial,serif\"><span style=\"font-size:large\">This criminal modality has focused on the vulnerability of small and medium businesses because it does not have robust security schemes.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family:Arial,serif\"><span style=\"font-size:large\">In Barranquilla, the most affected merchants are those of Undeco and Asocentro, which are made up of neighborhood shopkeepers, hardware stores and owners of establishments in the Historic Center.<\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family:Arial,serif\"><span style=\"font-size:large\"> <\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family:Arial,serif\"><span style=\"font-size:large\">Extortion is not something recent, but those affected do feel that it has acquired greater evolution since 2019 with a brief interlude of reductions in 2020 due to the covid-19 lockdowns.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family:Arial,serif\"><span style=\"font-size:x-large\">In the past, in some neighborhoods of the city, extortion was carried out wrapped in the offer of security.<\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family:Arial,serif\"><span style=\"font-size:x-large\"> <\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family:Arial,serif\"><span style=\"font-size:x-large\">With the irruption of the district by the AUC, this ended.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family:Arial,serif\"><span style=\"font-size:large\">Extortion, ambushed in cell phones, is characterized by being an operationally less risky activity for crime and economically very attractive.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family:Arial,serif\"><span style=\"font-size:large\">Some flagellated merchants maintain that extortion is also carried out by groups or individuals not affiliated with recognized criminal gangs.<\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family:Arial,serif\"><span style=\"font-size:large\"> <\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family:Arial,serif\"><span style=\"font-size:large\">Everything seems to indicate that they profitably usurp these criminal nomenclatures as if they were &#39;franchises&#39; at their service.<\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family:Arial,serif\"><span style=\"font-size:large\"> <\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family:Arial,serif\"><span style=\"font-size:large\">Extortion, of course, is a crime associated with the dynamics of organized criminal groups.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family:Arial,serif\"><span style=\"font-size:large\">Those who engage in extortion activity, when they contact their victims and put forward their demands, sometimes assume the role of protectors to justify the money requested and grant discounts if the claims exceed the economic possibilities of their victims.<\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family:Arial,serif\"><span style=\"font-size:large\"> <\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family:Arial,serif\"><span style=\"font-size:large\">In some cases, the same criminals reappear with the same extortion intentions, some time later, hiding behind another criminal label.<\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family:Arial,serif\"><span style=\"font-size:large\"> <\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family:Arial,serif\"><span style=\"font-size:large\">Other times, they issue death threats to the merchants and their family members.<\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family:Arial,serif\"><span style=\"font-size:large\"> <\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family:Arial,serif\"><span style=\"font-size:large\">And they have two paths: either they pay the &#39;vaccine&#39; on time or they end up closing their businesses as numerous shopkeepers have done, with the consequent economic damage to their homes and employees.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family:Arial,serif\"><span style=\"font-size:x-large\">The figures on extortion are today a partial photograph, since the crime is more widespread.<\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family:Arial,serif\"><span style=\"font-size:x-large\"> <\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family:Arial,serif\"><span style=\"font-size:x-large\">The underreporting is attributable to the understandable fear of those affected.<\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family:Arial,serif\"><span style=\"font-size:x-large\"> <\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family:Arial,serif\"><span style=\"font-size:x-large\">They do not denounce either in their union or in the judicial and police instances.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family:Arial,serif\"><span style=\"font-size:large\">Nor have the economic, social and psychological implications of extortion been studied in depth.<\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family:Arial,serif\"><span style=\"font-size:large\"> <\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family:Arial,serif\"><span style=\"font-size:large\">What we do know is that the popular economy has burst, increasing the tragedy of unemployment. Inside or outside prisons, crime cannot be tolerated.<\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family:Arial,serif\"><span style=\"font-size:large\"> <\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family:Arial,serif\"><span style=\"font-size:large\">Living in fear does not make sense because it is equivalent to granting sovereignty to crime, which in the long run weakens the State.<\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family:Arial,serif\"><span style=\"font-size:large\"> <\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family:Arial,serif\"><span style=\"font-size:large\">Without security, a fundamental right &ndash; we never tire of pointing it out &ndash; there is no freedom or democracy.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Extortion, ambushed in cell phones, is characterized by being an operationally less risky activity for crime and economically very attractive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3171,"menu_order":139,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1330,1332,1331],"class_list":{"0":"post-4239","1":"opinion","2":"type-opinion","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"tag-barranquilla","8":"tag-blackmail-colombia","9":"tag-extortion","10":"entry"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.6 - 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