Photo: Daniel Dan / Pexels
Mexico has a great treasure of “green gold”, a multimillion dollar industry. It is the main producer and exporter of avocado in the world. Organized crime groups have wanted to violently steal part of that treasure from the producing towns.
Civilians in the avocado towns of Michoacán have taken up arms to defend themselves. While some patrol, others go to work and take turns every day.
Michoacán produces four fifths of Mexican avocado and is the only state in the country that can sell to the United States. In 2019 The Los Angeles Times reported that a dozen criminal groups were fighting for control of the avocado trade around Uruapan, Michoacán, taking advantage of the owners of the crops, collectors and builders who transport fruit.
Pueblos Unidos: peasants, farmers and producers of Michoacán armed their own force to take care of themselves and protect the avocado crop
Pueblos Unidos, is a movement of armed civilians that rose last year in Ario de Rosales, it has established 50 control points on roads in around four towns to protect themselves day and night from organized crime.
tel, or self-defense groups; we are peoples who came together to do the work that the authorities have not done, “said one of the commanders of Pueblos Unidos to Animal Político.
Peoples defend themselves from the criminal yoke
In the avocado producing towns in Michoacán there has been kidnapping of peasants and producers ; extortions of money from day laborers and small producers; collection of rates per hectare; daily hijacking of avocado trucks; as well as theft of cargo and fires to packing houses.
Members of Pueblos Unidos told EFE that a criminal group demanded quotas of up to 50, 000 pesos (about 2, 500 dollars) for each hectare planted with avocado.
The day laborers had to give half of their weekly salary to the different criminal groups and organizations.
Criminal groups also cleared protected forests to plant avocados. According to testimonies collected in 2019 by Los Angeles Times , they forced collectors to work without pay. In turn, they prevented day laborers from working to create a supply shortage , increasing profits for cartel-controlled crops.
Violence has been exercised by criminal groups against day laborers, drivers and owners of avocado crops.
State government does not sympathize with Pueblos Unidos, while local authorities defend the movement
Israel Patron Reyes, Secretary of Public Security at Michoacán, warned in the middle of this year that the Pueblos Unidos groups could be sponsored by criminal groups and that their members would be detained from one moment to the next. However, the civilians rejected the accusation.
Contrary to what was declared by the state security authorities, the mayor of the town of Ario de Rosales, Irma Moreno, points out through Animal Político that in Pueblos Unidos, she does not see criminals, but peasants, day laborers and farmers who defend their communities from siege and criminal yoke.
Moreno affirms that as a result of the uprising in arms of Pueblos Unidos, the robberies of avocado trucks stopped and the economy began to recover.
The Association of Producers and Exporters Packers of Avocado of the State of Michoacán (APEAM) pointed out to EFE that in the season 2020 – 2021, Michoacán managed to export a total of one million tons of avocado to the United States alone.
Day laborers members of Pueblos Unidos point out that if the government disarms them, they will have no way to defend themselves. Many victims of criminal groups have requested the support of the Pueblos Unidos organization by not trusting local, state or federal authorities.
A day laborer who decided to join Pueblos Unidos, told Animal Político that he remembers how the same police beat he and his brother just for going through town to visit their parents and they handed them over to organized crime “they beat us; They treated us worse than an animal. ”
You may be interested in:
– They demand justice for the 11 avocado trees killed by drug traffickers while looking for honeycombs
– United cartels burn down avocado company
– No more avocado: why renowned chefs are asking to reduce their consumption