The president of the lime producers’ association was found dead in his car after complaining about extortion by cartels in Mexico.

A leader of lemon growers in the violent western Mexican state of Michoacán was killed on Monday, authorities said, after repeatedly denouncing the extortion demands of organized crime on producers.

The Michoacán State Prosecutor’s Office reported this Monday on a social platform that the body of Bernardo Bravo, president of the Association of Citrus Producers of the Apatzingán Valley, was found in his vehicle on a road in the area.

In several interviews with Mexico’s Radio Formula in late September and early this month, Bravo denounced “the permanent commercial hijacking by organized crime of any commercial activity.” He said the criminals’ demands were beyond the reach of the producers, who had no choice but to negotiate with them.

He admitted that the federal government had made some progress against organized crime in the area, but said more needed to be done to end its impunity.

Last year, the federal government sent hundreds of troops to Michoacán to protect lime producers who complained of extortion threats.

In August, more than half of the lime packing warehouses in lowland Michoacán temporarily closed after producers and distributors said they had received demands from Los Viagras and other cartels for a reduction in their income.

Limes have been a source of income for cartels for years in Mexico.

In 2013, lime producers founded and led the largest self-defense movement in Mexico. At the time, the cartels had taken control of distribution, manipulating domestic prices for crops like avocados and limes, telling producers when they could harvest and at what price they could sell their crops.

Mexican gangs and other illegal actors have also attacked avocado production.

Cartel extortion in Mexico

Of the various criminal groups that operate in Michoacán, several were declared foreign terrorist organizations by the Trump administration, including United Cartels, the New Michoacan Family and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.

Cartels in many parts of Mexico have expanded into kidnapping and extortion to increase their income, demanding money from residents and business owners and threatening to kidnap or kill them if they refuse.

In July, the Mexican government said that dismantled a criminal group behind a massive extortion scheme. The gang, with ties to a major drug cartel, had operated from the center of the State of Mexico, extorting companies and individuals in 14 municipalities and controlling unions in the construction, mining, agriculture and package delivery industries.

In July 2024, a fishing industry leader who complained of extortion by drug cartels and illegal fishing was shot dead in the northern border state of Baja California. Minerva Pérez was murdered a few hours after she complained about widespread competition from illegal fishing.

Ordinary citizens are also targets of extortion. In January 2024, a cartel in Michoacán set up its own makeshift Internet antennas and told locals they had to pay to use their Wi-Fi service or they would be killed, prosecutors said. Nicknamed “narco-antennas” According to local media, the cartel’s system involved Internet antennas installed in several towns built with stolen equipment.

The News contributed to this report.

In:

• drug cartels
• Mexico
• Murder
• Sign