José, a business magnate in his 30s who said he was afraid to have
his full name published, makes sure his two children get the same
protection. Bodyguards pick them up from school and escort them even to
friends’ birthday parties — where the bodyguards meet other bodyguards,
because many of the children’s classmates have similar protection.
With drug-related violence spinning out of control and kidnappings a proven money-maker for criminal gangs, members of Mexico’s upper class find themselves juggling the spoils of their status with the fear of being killed.
Dinner party chatter these days focuses on two things that are making
their lives, still the envy of the country’s masses, far less enviable:
the financial crisis, which is chipping away at their wealth, and the
wave of insecurity, which is making it more perilous for them to enjoy
what remains.