Mexico gangs cut into Super Bowl avocado bounty

Holy Guacamole !
What to do , no Guacamole dip for the Chips on Super Bowl Sunday.
Those Cartels sure are ruthless !


URUAPAN, Mexico (Reuters) - This sunkissed corner of western Mexico is the source of an annual bounty of guacamole dip for U.S. Super Bowl fans, but extortion and kidnapping by drug gangs has cast a grim shadow over its avocado farmers.

The drug lords of Michoacan state have branched out in recent years from trafficking narcotics to menacing the prosperous avocado barons whose produce will be gobbled up by millions of Americans during Sunday's football championship.

Michoacan's avocado farmers can easily earn more than $150,000 a year, a huge sum in Mexico.

All the large growers and packers around the city of Uruapan have been threatened, people in the industry say, as well-armed cartels search for new sources of revenue amid pressure from a government crackdown.

Locked in a ruthless war with rival smugglers and security forces, Mexico's drug gangs have slain some 18,000 people since late 2006. They are equally ruthless with business owners and farmers who are targeted for extortion money or ransom.

"In the last two or three years it has gotten worse," a leader of the local avocado industry said, asking not to have his name printed. "It's not something we like to talk about. It's just something we live with."

With demands for regular payments, the cartels suck cash out of an industry that has brought hundreds of millions of dollars to Michoacan over the last decade. Kidnap ransoms are often equivalent to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Many growers now stay clear of their prized land, managing their farms remotely, for fear of being approached or abducted. Some go to farms during the day with bodyguards but live with their families in towns a safe distance away.

"Many of them give money, others don't," one manager said, also declining to be quoted by name. "If you don't give it, well, you are putting yourself in danger."