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| Migrants get on a bus after accepting an offer from the Mexican government to leave a caravan bound for the U.S. and obtain humanitarian visas to transit Mexican territory, in Huixtla, Mexico Nov. 27. Reuters-Yonhap |
Extortion of avocado growers in western Mexico has gotten so bad that 500 vigilantes from a so-called "self-defense" group known as United Towns, or Pueblos Unidos, gathered Saturday and pledged to aid police.
The vigilantes gathered for a rally in the town of Nuevo Urecho, in the western state of Michoacan, armed with AR-15s and other rifles, as well as a motley collection of shotguns.
They said that drug cartels like the Viagras and the Jalisco cartel have been charging avocado growers 'war taxes' of about $1,000 per acre ($2,500 per hectare).
Tired of the extortion demands and kidnappings, growers and farmers formed the group in 2020, and it now claims to have almost 3,000 members. (AP)
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