Violence escalates in Mexico’s avocado growing region ahead of Super Bowl guacamole demand

As the United States prepares to eat several thousand tons of avocados this weekend during the 58th edition of the Super Bowl in Las Vegas, a terrible security crisis is unfolding under the threat of organized crime 2,700 kilometers from the neon city in the Mexican state of Michoacan, the world’s largest exporter of avocados.

An EFE team rode with Michoacan’s Civil Guard (formerly the state police) along the trails that run through avocado fields, where the Guard and municipal police usually patrol every day, and where in recent days they have had confrontations with people identified by their clothing as members of the Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación.

During a stroll through his avocado plantation, Cuauhtémoc Montero, a chemical engineer and the owner since four years ago of Rancho La Luna in the municipality of Morelia, explained to EFE that police presence has been made difficult in the areas where the crops are grown, which are mainly rural.

The success of the avocado, known as “green gold,” has further complicated the situation. In light of this and a wave of violence that has included, especially in the municipality of Uruapan, dozens of bodies hanging from bridges, posters with threats between criminal groups, and endless shootings, the government has deployed all of its various security forces to the region.

“We have had confrontations because, in the end, the groups that are there (in the hills and fields), are also armed. That is our job,” Jose Ortega, undersecretary of police operations for the Secretariat of National Security, told EFE after an operation in Uruapan.