Violence has engulfed Mexico for more than a decade and it does not seem to end. People are murdered, injured and kidnapped on an almost daily basis and, while the government attempts to curtail all of it, they cannot succeed. Now, it seems the violence may begin affecting Mexico's business prospects as fear of further violence could affect business and their employees.

President Enrique Peña Nieto has tried again and again to prevent the violence from spreading but he has not fully succeeded. Mexico has become one of the top fifth violent nations in Latin America to do business in, according to FTI Consulting. A report by FTI Consulting, Inc., a global business security assessment firm, listed Mexico along with Venezuela, Honduras, Guatemala and Haiti as places dangerous both for companies and executives.

"After some initial success in lowering homicide rates," writes Frank L. Holder, Chairman of Latin America for FTI Consulting and author of the Latin America Security Index. "[T]he overall security situation in Mexico shows little sign of further improvement. The growth of militias to fight the drug cartels, infighting among the cartels themselves and continued government actions has shown a similar level of public insecurity, kidnappings and violence as prior years, with increases in some areas such as theft of merchandise in transit."

According to Mexico's Ministry of Government, violence has actually increased in the last two months. The National System on Public Security (SNSP), which is in charge of making sense of the numbers, reports that 330 kidnappings and 1,305 extortion cases have happened nationwide, an 11 percent and 4.5 percent increase respectively, according to Forbes.

Yet, aside from the numbers, President Peña Nieto's attempts to portray his country as one emerging from violence continue to be squandered by reports of new lawlessness. According to Bloomberg, one of the most recent events saw a vigilante group besiege a ranch. Led by Luis Antonio Torres, aka El Americano, the 400-strong group surrounded the ranch in which a rival group hid. Torres claimed that those inside had killed two of his comrades and had stolen orchards Torres's group seized from the Knights Templar cartel, according to Bloomberg. The police's arrival defused the situation before shots were fired. However, it is this kind of situation which paints Mexico as an unappealing place for businesses. Although the government first touted the vigilante groups as effective against the cartels, a year later they have gotten out of control despite what the government says otherwise.