Avocados are a $2.4 billion dollar business in Mexico. Behind the scenes, farmers are trading equipment for guns and forming vigilante groups to defend themselves against dangerous drug cartels.
The majority of the fresh avocados sold in the US are grown in Michoacán, Mexico. In fact, 20% of the population there works in the industry.
Workers are able to make high profits, but with these high profits, comes high-risk situations.
In August 2020, farmers in and around Ario de Rosales, Michoacán organized their own vigilante group to protect themselves against cartels that are stealing resources, kidnapping, and murdering the people who work in the avocado industry.
The vigilante group is called Pueblos Unidos, or United Towns. They patrol an area around half the size of Phoenix, AZ to keep the cartels out. The majority of members had never even shot a gun before.
Avocado farm owners from larger areas hire private police to defend their land from cartels. Some farmers even pay extortion money so that the criminal groups stay away.
The farmers are asking the state for a permanent detachment from the national guard. The government has provided some help, but locals say it isn’t enough as crime continues to increase.
The increase in demand for avocados stems from when the US signed the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1993. This agreement lifted an 83-year ban on avocado imports from Mexico.
The avocado business is now so lucrative that even the deadly violence hasn’t stopped other newcomers from trying to break in, even though the best land is taken.
Drug cartels have kidnapped and killed dozens of locals in the past year alone. And as long as the world’s love affair with avocados continues, this problem won’t go away.
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