Linda had to leave her home in Ixtaro, Michoacán in February 2021. She hid under blankets in a van, took her children with her and fled the cartel’s threats. His brother Willie, a retired soldier, had confronted the group controlling the city and after a confrontation he managed to wound some and kill others. His body was found a few kilometers away with signs of torture. But these criminal groups do not forgive and forget; One of the wounded men sought revenge, and Linda knew that if she didn’t escape, she would be next. Or your children.
Linda takes the son of her brother Willie, who was murdered by organized crime, to summer school in California. Stephania Corpi Arnaud
The criminal organization Pueblos Unidos had taken over the small town of just 1,500 residents and was attempting to take control of avocado production. It was founded as a self-defense group to ostensibly defend the residents of Los Viagras, one of the most bloodthirsty armed groups in Michoacán. The high fees charged by this cartel began to stifle local producers, who had to pay between 3,000 and 5,000 pesos per hectare (between 150 and 250 dollars, at the exchange rate of early 2021).
In less than a year, Pueblos Unidos armed avocado producers. Business was good; They themselves sold the weapons at inflated prices and people were forced to buy them. “Every family had to have at least one gun,” says Linda. They sold his family a rifle for 100,000 pesos and everyone had to come up with the money.
The members of Pueblos Unidos arrived in Ixtaro presenting themselves as farmers concerned about the presence of criminal groups. They called on the community to elect a leader or representative to act as a mediator. But when Los Viagras left the city, this new organization took control of laboratories, houses and weapons. In a very short time it became clear that this was another criminal gang.
Members of the Pueblos Unidos group gather for a demonstration in Nuevo Urecho, Michoacán, Saturday, November 27, 2021. Armando Solis (AP)
The avocado only came onto the market a decade ago; Like many cities, Ixtaro grew fields of corn or peaches. The hectares of avocado trees brought prosperity to the residents. Adobe houses were built of brick, streets were paved, and there was generally more cash in circulation.
But in Mexico, money always attracts the attention of organized crime. Extortion and kidnapping are common in an area where the Jalisco New Generation Cartel is trying to get rid of all rivals and take control. The cities of Pátzcuaro, Santa Clara del Cobre and Uruapan, all in Michoacán, are the scene of clashes between armed groups.
“It’s become a much more complex business,” says Ieva Jusionyte, a professor at Brown University who chronicles years of research on the arms trade in her book “Exit Wounds.” Drug trafficking requires more planning and risk; Owning weapons gives organized crime the power to extort and kidnap farmers. “This business is easier,” Nite adds.
A group of self-defense groups from Pueblos Unidos conduct guard duties to protect avocado plantations in the area of Ario de Rosales, Michoacán, Mexico, July 8, 2021. ENRIQUE CASTRO (AFP)
The risk of non-compliance with antitrust regulations has fatal consequences. A farmer from Ario de Rosales says it is now common to find bodies on his land. “The second body we found had its head missing,” he says. And the reason they buy the weapons themselves is to not compromise with Pueblos Unidos. “The least thing you want to do is owe them something…it’s better to save,” he says.
Mexico is currently the largest avocado exporter in the world, representing a market of around 3 billion dollars. The state of Michoacán concentrates 75% of the production. It’s a company that doesn’t stop growing; Exports to the USA increased from 121,600 tons in 2019 to around 135,000 in 2022. The succulent business thus attracted the cartels, which diversified their activities over the years.
Irene Álvarez, a researcher who has studied self-defense groups in different regions of Michoacán, explains that this state is one of those that cite the impact of organized crime and this is largely due to the agricultural industry. In fact, today the enormous avocado production is also joined by wild berries or red fruits.
“There is an agricultural boom phenomenon in Michoacán, and this money somehow creates a particular dynamic of violence,” says Álvarez. Ixtaro is an example of this dynamic. In this region, the payment of royalties to cartels was introduced much later than in other regions such as Tierra Caliente between Guerrero and the State of Mexico. The supposed peace that the people bought by purchasing weapons and allowing the Pueblos Unidos to enter the country ended in disgrace. The elected community leader and his brothers were murdered because they opposed expanding avocado cultivation, arguing that water shortages would ultimately be a problem for all producers. Linda’s brother Willie also died trying to defend her. His remains rest in the city’s Pantheon, where many have relatives who have become part of the statistics of the war on drugs.
weapons
The arms trade to Mexico is coordinated by criminal organizations that have members on both sides of the northern border. The process begins with purchasing a gun in the United States and legally registering it, usually through loan officers. Almost always, those who make the purchases are “American citizens,” explains Ieva Jusionyte, who works in border states like Arizona and Texas. However, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) has traced weapons from 50 states in Mexico.
A rifle painted with the United States flag is displayed at the National Rifle Association (NRA) annual meeting in Houston, Texas, May 28, 2022.Toya Sarno Jordan
The smugglers wait until they have made several purchases so that another person from the same organization can then take the goods to a point on the border where a third member is responsible for crossing the border.
“There is no inspection on the Mexican side,” says Timothy Sloan, a former ATF attaché in Mexico, so the number of weapons seized at the border is very small. These people take advantage of the lack of control by Mexican authorities and often hide weapons in car doors or diesel tanks or dismantle them to make identification more difficult. “I have recorded stories, for example of a person who passed his weapon around like a child’s chair,” adds Irene Álvarez.
The San Ysidro border crossing in Tijuana is one of the most frequently used border crossing points for weapons; Although California’s laws are less lax, drug traffickers often bring weapons to this point because they know there is a lot going on there.
The process involves a chain of at least five people, so by the time the goods arrive in Mexico the costs have already increased three or four times. Like drugs traveling north, their value increases the further they travel from the border. Sales mainly take place via WhatsApp groups.
This is how one of the weapons in the crime that ended in March 2023 with the murder of two American citizens in the border city of Matamoros ended up in Mexico. Kidnapped by a criminal organization, they were found four days later. The gun was traced to its purchase by an American who admitted knowing it would end up in the hands of the Gulf Cartel and received $100 for the deal.
The flow of weapons in Mexico is regulated by the military, but the lack of transparency contributes to the uncertainty of how many there really are. Some estimate that there are around 15 million copies in circulation, 85% of which come from illegal trade.
Lisa Sánchez, executive director of Mexico United Against Crime (MUCD), explains that since 2017, the government, through the Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection, has been obliged to create a national arms and ammunition register. “And that record either hasn’t been created, or if it has been created, it’s not public,” he says. Sánchez claims this creates a vacuum for quantifying the arms market, including a registry of weapons diverted to illicit markets. “For example, what happens to weapons that are lost or stolen?” asks the expert.
The Mexican army assured in June that it had confiscated more than 39,000 illegal weapons during its six-year term. The government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador filed a criminal complaint against 11 gun stores in Massachusetts, which was dismissed, but appealed the decision. The State Department later filed another civil lawsuit in Arizona pending resolution.
In any case, no matter how many weapons there are, the problem is the type of weapons. “In this war [contra el narco] “There is an arms race,” explains Irene Álvarez. The caliber of these weapons circulating in the country is also a factor that worries authorities, as in many cases even the city police are less armed than these groups. “The ability to do damage now is absolutely sublime.”
50-caliber Barretts, AR-15s, drones and tactical equipment are turning entire regions of Mexico into ghost towns. “Nothing makes you want to run away from home like a gun pointed at you,” says Ieva Jusionyte, a professor at Brown University. “The flow of weapons and their proliferation in Mexico is definitely linked to forced displacement,” Jusionyte continues. This gave Linda time to just get a change of clothes and escape her home with her family.
Mexicans at the border
On the border between Mexico and the United States, there are thousands of stories about displaced Mexicans, scattered among Venezuelans, Nicaraguans, Haitians, Afghans… In just a few days in Tijuana, a dozen women told their stories of violence, extortion and kidnapping. “Just as the United States is concerned about deaths from fentanyl overdoses, we in Mexico are concerned about deaths from homicides and firearms entering the country illegally,” explains Cecilia Farfán, director of security research at the University of California San Diego.
View of the border wall of Tijuana, Baja California in August 2022. Toya Sarno Jordan
A woman from Michoacán says her daughter was shot five times on the corner of her house six days ago. He didn’t even have time to bury her; He boarded a truck with his two children on the way to Tijuana. Lisa Sanchez of MUCD says statistics show the impact guns have on communities. “Seven out of ten violent deaths of women are committed with firearms,” says Sánchez, compared to just three out of ten in 2000.
Another woman from Michoacán tells us about the videos her ex-partner sends her with a long gun, telling her that he has already identified her. He threatens to dismember her son and then her. Another from Guanajuato was kidnapped for almost a month and had to flee with her sister and two daughters. Another woman from Ixtapa, Guerrero, filed a complaint after failing to pay her taqueria fees.
Michoacán is a state that has a very close relationship with the United States; not just for the avocado, but also for a decades-long migratory flow. In 2022 alone, remittances reached $5 billion. But the migration dynamics are changing. They are no longer people looking for a better life, but entire families displaced by violence. Linda, for example, traveled with 25 family members. And ultimately the problem is always the weapons. “To the extent that there are more people who are armed and have this important fire capacity, (…) it allows different groups, especially when they want to drive people out of an area, to be able to do so with the threat “of violence,” concludes Farfán.
This report was possible thanks to the support of Pulitzer Center.
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