A leader representing lime producers in the western Mexican state of Michoacan was killed on Monday after months of publicly denouncing extortion demands from organized crime groups targeting agricultural producers.
The Michoacan state prosecutor's office reported on social platform X that the body of Bernardo Bravo, president of the Apatzingan Valley Citrus Producers Association, was found inside his vehicle on a local road.
In interviews with Mexico's Radio Formula in late September and earlier in October, Bravo had spoken about "organized crime's permanent commercial hijacking of any commercial activity." He said that producers were struggling under extortion demands that had become unaffordable, forcing them to negotiate with criminal groups.
Bravo acknowledged that the federal government had made some progress in combating organized crime in the region, but stressed that more needed to be done to end the impunity that growers face.
Last year, the federal government deployed hundreds of troops to Michoacan to protect lime growers who had reported threats and extortion from cartels. In August, more than half of the lime packing warehouses in the lowlands of Michoacan closed temporarily after growers and distributors said they had received demands for payment from organized groups, including Los Viagras and other cartels.
Lime production in Michoacan has long been a source of revenue for criminal organizations. In 2013, lime growers in the region formed and led Mexico's largest vigilante movement in response to cartel control over the fruit trade. At the time, cartels had taken over distribution channels, manipulated domestic prices for crops such as avocados and limes, and dictated when farmers could harvest and at what price they could sell.
Several of the criminal groups operating in Michoacan, including United Cartels, the New Michoacan Family, and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, have been designated as foreign terrorist organizations by the U.S. government.
Source: AP News
