Durango, Mexico — 2025 GÓMEZ PALACIO, Mexico — The calls began quietly at first. A cattle supplier in Lerdo. A grain warehouse outside Gómez Palacio. A trucking contractor who moved heavy machinery along the cotton fields of La Laguna. Each call carried the same message: pay or suffer the consequences. By the time business chambers spoke openly in the fall, extortion in La Laguna had grown into a regional crisis — one increasingly testing the leadership of Governor Esteban Vi

LA LAGUNA, Mexico — The calls almost always begin the same way. A quiet pause. A measured breath. Then a man’s voice, calm and unhurried, addressing the shop owner or farmer on the other end with unsettling familiarity. “We know who you are,” the callers say. “And we know what you can pay.” Across the Comarca Lagunera, a vast desert region shared by Durango and Coahuila, extortion has become part of daily life for merchants, farmers, transport operators and small manufacturer

El discurso del poder Hace una semana, el gobernador de Durango, Esteban Villegas Villarreal , lanzó una declaración que pretendía transmitir autoridad y cercanía con el sector productivo: “Si hay empresarios que están siendo extorsionados, que me digan y yo lo arreglo. Para eso soy el gobernador.” La frase, pronunciada con aparente seguridad, se convirtió rápidamente en un símbolo de las contradicciones que atraviesan su administración. Lo que buscaba ser un gesto de lideraz

In the dust-laden streets of the Laguna region, straddling Durango, a silent force is suffocating commerce. Over the past month, local...