Opinion | America's appetite for avocados is helping to fuel the Mexican cartels, but giving up guacamole isn't the solution. By falko_ernst of crisisgroup and ICGlatam.
Farm workers load crates of freshly picked avocados into a truck at a plantation in Tacambaro, in Michoacan state, Mexico, June 7, 2017. Picture taken June 7, 2017.US consumption of avocados has increased drastically in recent years.
But boycotting avocados altogether will not help the thousands of people employed on the avocado farms.This is an opinion column. The thoughts expressed are those of the author.For Mexico's avocado producers, the explosion in their crop's popularity has brought a veritable green gold rush, but it also has a darker side. So rich in nutrients they are widely labeled a "superfruit," consumption of avocados in the US alone has doubled in the last ten years to make for a $2.
But twenty years ago, something did change. Until the year 2000, Mexico was governed for an uninterrupted 71-year stretch by a single authoritarian party. That party might have been a synonym for corruption, but it did manage to impose certain rules onto theThen came democracy and former president Felipe Calderón's attempts to go after the cartels head-on. Regional governments became more autonomous, opening up new avenues for corruption in the absence of effective oversight.
The reason for the shift away from drugs is twofold. First, it's easier – think not having to ship merchandise for thousands of miles through hostile terrain, not having to bribe officers along the chain and still risk losing it all to law enforcement and not having personnel arrested or killed.
These criminal groups get away with these actions because, in contemporary Mexico, you can literally get away with murder. Due to corruption and collusion victims usually have nowhere to turn to for help, and less than one in 10 homicides gets solved.The billion-dollar-a-year avocado industry has generated a fierce battle between different armed groups who seek to dominate it.
There is no quick fix for the situation. The reforms that are necessary to cleanse Mexico's institutions and enable them to do their job — including through more effective oversight and by better training, paying and protecting the people who work for them —will require years of gradual, painstaking effort from all sides.
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