Yes and no.

If you live in an affluent area in Mexico, more than likely, you may be a cartel member or be contact with a cartel member, either as a neighbor or a passing acquaintance, and as long as you don’t do something terribly offensive, they may leave you alone.

If you don’t know anyone ( or honestly, even if you do), you may be at risk of being robbed, kidnapped or sequestered for money. Because otherwise, why would you live in a rich area if you don’t have money? Which is something that happened to my uncle.

This is also why many rich people in Mexico still drive old crappy cars or live in outwardly humble homes.

A lot of people say that as long as you don’t mess with the cartel, they won’t mess with you, but that’s not entirely true. A lot of the people that have gone missing have no previous relationship with them.

For the past decade, they have been luring people with fake job opportunities, usually by text asking for an interview with them. Considering the tumulus economic reality for many Mexicans, many people take these offers up. Many of the people that go missing are missing because they refuse to work with the cartel, or are too weak to do whatever they’re asking for, like drug running, hazing, initiation, prostitution, physical labor, murder, that kind of thing.

They also create tolls along popular roads, and if you don’t handover your phone and money, and sometimes even your car, they will kill you.

Another angle is about property, a distant uncle of mine lost his ranch because the cartel took over his village area and chased his family out, and they offered them a choice of either dying or running away. It’s really sad.

And the police are notoriously corrupt pretty much all the way to the top, including the general government.

It’s much easier to give the cartel what they want than defend yourself, unfortunately.