Gunmen killed 11 Avocado farmworkers in the state of Michoacan, marking the latest massacre as rival cartels fight for control of the region. Six of the victims were minors.
The shooting took place this week in the municipality of Tangamandapio, the Michoacan Attorney General’s Office revealed in a prepared statement. The victims are described as avocado farmworkers not tied to illicit activity.
Locals revealed to Breitbart Texas the victims were Purepecha Indians and that state authorities have largely ignored their pleas for help as criminal organizations target avocado farmers for extortion schemes.
According to state authorities, the victims left to a wooded area to collect honey in the morning and did not return home. It was not until that night when authorities found the 11 bodies, all shot several times. A motive has not been officially revealed.
Michoacan has become a war zone where large-scale shootouts, kidnappings, and massacres have become commonplace in recent years. The violence is tied to a brutal turf war between smaller cartels and cells masquerading as self-defense groups calling themselves Carteles Unidos, who are trying to keep out elements from Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG). The rival criminal organizations have been fighting over control of drug production territories in remote mountain areas and trafficking routes near the coast to bring cocaine shipments from Central and South America by boat.
Editor’s Note: Breitbart Texas traveled to the Mexican States of Tamaulipas, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and other areas to recruit citizen journalists willing to risk their lives and expose the cartels silencing their communities. Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles are published in both English and in their original Spanish. This article was written by Jose Luis Lara, a former leading member who helped start the Self-Defense Movement in Michoacán.