Mexico has acknowledged that the U.S. government has suspended all imports of Mexican avocados after a U.S. plant safety inspector in Michoacan, Mexico received a threatening call on his cellphone.
Avocado exports are the latest victim of the drug cartel turf battles and extortion of avocado growers in the western state of Michoacan, the only state in Mexico fully authorized to export to the U.S. market.
The import ban came as a surprise on the day that the Mexican avocado growers and packers association unveiled its Super Bowl ad for this year. Mexican exporters have taken out the pricey ads for almost a decade in a bid to associate guacamole as a Super Bowl tradition.
“U.S. health authorities … made the decision after one of their officials, who was carrying out inspections in Uruapan, Michoacan, received a threatening message on his official cellphone,” Mexico’s Agriculture Department said in a statement.
The ministry also said the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is carrying out an investigation to assess the threat, and to determine what measures are needed to guarantee the safety of its personnel working in Michoacan.
Reuters notes that the suspension of avocado exports comes just two days after the American Embassy expressed concern over continued violence against journalists in Mexico after the recent killing of a journalist.
“We’re dismayed by the situation journalists are facing in Mexico,” the U.S. embassy in Mexico said on Twitter, calling the fatal shooting in southern Mexico of journalist Heber Lopez, which was announced Thursday, a “loathsome” act.
Michoacan has been one of Mexico’s most troubled states, as warring gangs fight for turf and control of the lucrative money associated with the export of avocados. In the past six weeks, Michoacan exported over 135,000 tons of avocado to the United States, the ministry said.
Mexico is unable to rein in illegal activities
And this is not the first time that the violence in Michoacan — where the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) is fighting turf wars against a collection of local gangs known as the United Cartels — has threatened avocados.
In August 2019, a U.S. Department of Agriculture team of inspectors was “directly threatened” in Ziracuaretiro, a town just west of Uruapan. While the agency didn’t specify what happened, local authorities say a gang robbed the truck the inspectors were traveling in at gunpoint.
The USDA wrote in a letter at the time that, “For future situations that result in a security breach, or demonstrate an imminent physical threat to the well-being of APHIS personnel, we will immediately suspend program activities.”
On Thursday, the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office filed an environmental complaint against Mexico for failing to stop illegal fishing to protect the critically endangered vaquita marina, the world’s smallest porpoise.
The office said it had asked for “environment consultations” with Mexico, the first such case it has filed under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada free trade pact.
And as of Monday, Mexican fishing boats in the Gulf of Mexico will be “prohibited from entering U.S. ports, and will be denied port access and services,” the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said, in response to years of Mexican boats illegally poaching red snapper in U.S. waters in the Gulf.
