El narco en México cobra tarifas para permitir realizar censos y encuestas en los pueblos que domina
The article highlights a critical breach in Mexico’s statistical infrastructure, where organized crime has successfully extorted national agencies to ensure their operations continue. The National Institute of Statistics and Geography was forced to pay cartels for access to certain territories and hire local criminals to conduct censuses, revealing that state functions are compromised by illicit financial demands. This coercion directly undermines the integrity of official data, creating systemic risks for public policy and resource allocation. Beyond financial extortion, criminal organizations actively obstruct data collection through violence, kidnapping, and intimidation of survey workers. The presence of cartels creates demographic voids as residents flee, while political actors are harassed to prevent them from gathering accurate public opinion data. This environment makes standard methodological approaches impossible in high-risk regions, forcing statistical bodies to adopt dangerous and irregular workarounds to survive. This situation is vital for open data advocates because it demonstrates how security crises can corrupt the very foundations of truth and transparency. When state institutions cannot independently collect or publish data without paying bribes or facing threats, the reliability of public information collapses. It serves as a stark warning that open data initiatives require not just technological access, but profound institutional security and autonomy to remain trustworthy and functional in fragile democratic contexts.
Source: laopinion.comPublished on 2023-07-30