Kidnapped, Tortured, and M*rdered for Avocados?

Avocados are about to get a lot more expensive and a lot harder to find as the US just banned Mexican avocado imports because safety inspectors are receiving death threats from the violent cartels that control the avocado trade in Michoacán, Mexico.

That’s a lot to take in, but the short version is: Chipotle is screwed. Get ready to pay $10-$20 a scoop when they tell you “guac is extra”. This ban affects 80% of the avocados that are consumed in the United States, where avocado prices are already double what they were last year even before this ban. And all of that is the result of a surprisingly violent and dangerous avocado trade, in which innocent people are kidnapped, tortured, and killed over who gets to control the sale and production of avocados. 

Michoacán is the only region of Mexico that is allowed to commercially sell avocados to the United States and supplies over 40 million pounds a week. But the region is also home to the most dangerous criminal organization in Mexico, and one of the top five most dangerous in the world, known as: “Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación” Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación” Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación” Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación”

The Jalisco New Generation Cartel, or the CJNG is a semi-paramilitary drug cartel headed by a drug lord called El Mencho, who is the most-wanted criminal in Mexico. For the last few decades, this cartel has been battling for control of the US-Mexico avocado trade, which brings in some $3 billion dollars a year, and when it comes to cartels, this one is famous for its aggressive use of extreme violence and even cannibalism. In 2017 it was discovered that cartels had been using government databases to find, extort, and kidnap avocado farmers for decades - the reality being that as lucrative as the avocado trade is in Mexico, it’s also unbelievably dangerous. Avocados are called “green gold”, and demand from the United States has quadrupled in the last 15 years, bringing drug-trafficking cartels flooding into Michoacán to get a piece of the action, and bringing with them their unparalleled brutality.

In 2019, nearly two dozen bodies were discovered publicly murdered in Michoacán, some hanging from an overpass, others found decapitated, and all believed to be related to the struggle for avocado trade dominance by these regional cartels. The Jalisco New Generation Cartel took credit for the killings, and even hung a large banner from the overpass alongside the bodies. All this, over avocados.

The truth is, the bottomless demand by the United States is directly fueling and funding this violence - your guacamole from Chipotle comes with a heavy price from avocado farmers in Mexico who are terrorized and brutalized for trying to earn a living.

And this ban on imports actually makes the situation even worse! Much of the local economy depends on avocado sales to the US, and even a ban of a few weeks or months can decimate their earnings for the year And ironically, there’s a fear that the collapse in income could lead people to turn to crime and join with the cartels, while also increasing immigration to the United States in search of alternative income.

Tens of thousands of hardworking, law-abiding families depend on the avocado industry, and by banning imports instead of making a concentrated effort to prevent cartels from infiltrating this trade, it actually has the potential to makes the crime and violence worse, while making it easier for cartels to recruit new members who’ve lost their livelihoods. So while this ban will make avocados a lot more sparse and a lot more expensive in the US, it’s also likely to fuel poverty, corruption, and crime in Mexico.