Mexico City: For a New Yorker like me, the word “extortion" conjures up images of Paulie the hit-man collecting from trash haulers for the protection racket run by his mafia boss. But here in Mexico, shakedowns are too often practiced by judicial authorities, monopolies, government bureaucrats and law enforcement as well as by criminal organizations.

       The problem goes a long way in explaining why, more than three decades after the country’s opening to economic and political competition, some 36% of Mexicans still live below the poverty line. In this election year it could become an issue.

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