“The more money generated by the demand for avocado in the United States, there will be more violence in Michoacán, because organized crime is behind money. ” This explains Hipolito Mora, founder of the first self-defense group in that Mexican southwest state, how behind the success of that fruit in the Super Bowl there is the struggle of the Michoacan producers against drug trafficking.
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Mora, who owns a lemon orchard in La Ruana, no longer leads any group of armed civilians, but continues to take care of his back. More than ever, their land is under the stalking of criminals. The same precautions are taken in some avocado crops, now guarded by guards holding AR-15 rifles, a weapon that only members of the Army should carry there.
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“In Tancítaro there are avocados that are protecting themselves from organized crime, they have armed people. If they don’t, that’s how they are going. In Uruapan they are suffering the same: the collection of floor. They are angry and have told me ‘help us’, ”Mora describes in a telephone interview with Univision News.
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It is the price that Michoacán pays for being the world leader in avocado production and for the popularity of that food on this side of the border. The US is by far the main market and its consumption has a special day: the championship match of the National Football League (NFL).
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This Sunday, when Kansas City and San Francisco meet in Super Bowl LIV, about 140,000 tons of Mexican avocado will be consumed, a new record for the sector, according to figures from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Mexico. Last year they sent 120,000 tons.
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Only Mexico exports 1.2 million tons to the US per year, generating a profit of 2,500 million dollars. This industry is linked to thousands of jobs in more than 6,400 Michoacan orchards that cover an immense area of 23,691 hectares. In the last five years the increase in labor supply doubled in that state. For that economic development they call it the ‘Green Gold’.
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The dark side of that financial boom is that drug trafficking hitmen have been going on for more than a decade threatening, kidnapping and murdering avocados who don’t give them a percentage of their profits.
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In 2007, Los Zetas seized the market with bullets. They were displaced by La Familia Michoacana and Los Caballeros Templarios. At present, the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel (CJNG), Viagras and other groups face to keep an illicit business that generates them About 100 million dollars every year.
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Nemesio Osegura Cervantes, aka ‘El Mencho’, He is the head of the CJNG and is originally from Michoacán. The DEA believes that this criminal is hiding in the mountains of that and other western Mexican states. In that area he is also interested in the ports of Lázaro Cárdenas and Colima, in which he receives the chemicals he needs for the production of methamphetamine, as well as the regions where poppy is grown.
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More than 1,400 crimes in Michoacán
That climate of insecurity has intervened to raise the price of avocado in the US, which is worth up to 1.5 dollars in supermarkets in California, almost the same as a hamburger in McDonald’s.
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Michoacán closed 2019 with a crime rate never seen before: From January to November of that year there were 1,465 murders, the vast majority perpetrated with firearms. In that same period of 2018, 237 fewer homicides were registered. This makes it the most violent year in the history of the state, according to statistics from the National Public Security System of that country.
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The most insecure municipalities were Morelia, Uruapan, Zamora, Apatzingán and Jacona. Uruapan, suitable for avocado planting due to its height, climate and terrain, is also considered the “zero zone” of the war between cartels and authorities. There they continue the homicides, kidnappings, extortions, shootings, invasions of orchards and robberies of trucks loaded with that food.
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“It is due to the little interest of the authorities to solve the problem of violence. They have already passed them and every day we are seeing that they destroy families, ”laments Mora, who says he is contemplating taking up arms again to defend his people. “The caravans of armed people (hitmen) wander wherever they want and citizens are desperate, ”he claims.
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This Friday, the Army and state police seized “a monster truck”, a cargo vehicle that was armored by hand, in the community of Aguililla, where four months ago 13 policemen were killed. It is believed that the imposing unit belonged to the same criminal organization that killed the agents: the Jalisco Cartel. Inside they found three magazines and 53 cartridges.
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In an action coordinated with the @SEDENAmx, we assure in Aguililla a vehicle with theft report, which has artisanal armor and, inside we find 3 loaders and 53 cartridges; the fact was registered in the Huerta del Tigre locality. # MichoacánSeEscucha pic.twitter.com/EoR2eA3fIb
& mdash; SSP MICHOACÁN (@MICHOACANSSP) February 1, 2020
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“It is a very clear example of what is happening,” warns Mora, who has been out of the self-defense movement for several years, which is still active in several regions of the state, such as Cherán. “All of us from Michoacán are fucking we need to live in peace; We are fed up, ”he concludes.
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