The trade war between Mexico and the United States over tariffs has reached the leadership of the PRI in Michoacán, where its leader Guillermo Valencia Reyes declared that in the state tariffs are already being paid to drug traffickers who extort all lemon and avocado producers.
During a work tour of the region that connects the municipalities of Buenavista and Apatzingán, two of the most affected by extortions by criminal groups, the leader of the state PRI stressed that there are no optimal conditions in terms of security and called on the state and federal government to stop the insecurity experienced by businessmen and residents of the Tierra Caliente of Michoacán.
“If you come here to talk to them about tariffs imposed by the United States, they are not going to care. Here the only thing that worries them are the tariffs charged by organized crime, the quotas that they impose on working people: lemon growers, mango growers, avocado growers. Everyone who works has to pay.”
It is worth remembering that every year, when the Super Bowl celebrations approach, is also one of the times when extortions to avocado producers in Michoacán soar, mainly because of the tons of fruit that leave Mexico to satisfy consumer demand.
“Here, freedom has been stolen by organized crime groups; here, municipalities are not disputed by political parties, they are disputed by drug cartels (…) Come here, you who are the government, to fight organized crime that imposes its quotas; the only taxes known here – apart from those paid by farmers to the government – are the quotas imposed by drug trafficking groups that have left entire communities empty due to the war between rival groups that kill teachers or farmers as well as soldiers with bombs.”
For his part, Guadalupe Mora Chávez, brother of Hipólito Mora, said that despite the implementation of security operations to end extortion, in the municipality of Felipe Carrillo Puerto, better known as La Ruana, the floor fee persists.
“The fees continue, the extortion continues and the price is so low (lemon); here the turn does not want to go above 7 pesos and paying two pesos per kilo (floor fee), the producers do not get enough for the maintenance of their orchards.”
The brother of the founder of the self-defense forces denied that the violence has decreased and stressed that although in the media there are presumptions of arrests and operations: “here we have no security, there are shootings every day in La Ruana, Buenavista, Catalinas and beyond; insecurity is not only in Sinaloa.”
Source: infobae
