On January 3, an armed man held up a Santander branch in Guadalajara’s Colonia Talpita, bagging 14,540 pesos before fleeing on a motorcycle. Hours later an HSBC branch in Tlajomulco de Zúñiga was assaulted in similar fashion; this time the two thieves made off with 14,000 pesos.
2011 saw a record number of bank robberies in Jalisco – 112 – with 70 percent taking place in the Guadalajara metropolitan area.
Lack of agreement between bank executives and municipal councils about who should bear the brunt of the cost of protecting banks meant many branches were left with inadequate security.
Although banks invested in security measures – mainly video and communications technology – in the second half of last year, only a few are protected by armed guards.