"Fear has come to live in the shadow of lemon trees in the Mexican state of Michoacan. This fruit essential to the food served on every street in the country is a prize co-opted by organized crime, which demands ever-increasing quotas from its producers in order to grow it. With the entry of new groups into the territory, such as the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), payments are rising, suffocating the countryside, which is already being battered by domestic market prices."
"The last farmer who dared to challenge the reign of terror by denouncing the extortion racket, Bernardo Bravo, was found murdered with a gunshot to the head a few miles from Apatzingan. His death is a stark warning to remain silent and designed to sow fear in the land cultivated by lemon growers, so often splattered with the blood of activists and peasants."
"In Apatzingan, everyone remains silent. No one dares to speak about the four-peso fee charged for each kilo of lemon harvest a fee that has doubled in a short time. Nor about the death threats, the murders of producer families, or the abandonment by authorities who have left them to their fate in the face of violence and insecurity. Under an assumed name, farmer Antonio Mendoza tells EL PAIS,"
Organized crime has seized control of lemon production in Michoacán, imposing ever-higher quotas and extortion payments that squeeze farmers already harmed by low domestic prices. New groups such as the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) have raised payments and increased violence, leading to murders, death threats, and forced silence among producer communities. Prominent organizer Bernardo Bravo was murdered after denouncing extortion and calling protests, intimidating others into a pact of silence. Authorities have largely abandoned the affected farmers, leaving citrus associations and rural families vulnerable as economic pressures and insecurity undermine livelihoods across lemon-growing municipalities.
Read at english.elpais.com
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