U.S. firms' security concerns grow in Mexico: poll

Now we start to see some real fallout from the insane cartel wars in Mexico !
American companies in Mexico feel threatened , they should be running out of Mexico like the thousands of Mexican citizens that do so every month !

(Reuters) - U.S. companies in Mexico are increasingly worried about security and many are reconsidering future investments as drug war killings spiral out of control, a poll showed on Thursday.

The American Chamber of Commerce of Mexico, which represents the bulk of foreign direct investment in the country, said 58 percent of its members felt less safe in 2009 than they did a year earlier.

Twenty-seven percent were reconsidering investments in Mexico due to security concerns, according to a poll of the American Chamber's members.

Drug violence has killed nearly 19,000 people across Mexico since President Felipe Calderon took office in late 2006 and launched an army assault on powerful trafficking gangs.

"Clients do not want to come to our country because they are afraid. They ask if they need bodyguards," Raul Gutierrez, president of Mexico's steelmaker association Canacero, told reporters at a steel industry event.

Calderon has deployed tens of thousands of troops and elite police to fight drug gangs, but shootings and grenade attacks have become common, especially near the northern border with the United States, which is dotted with foreign-owned factories.

Companies cite kidnappings and extortion as other risks.