U.S. inspector threatened; avocado imports halted

Nearly 90 percent of imported avocados come from Michoacán, a Mexican region plagued with violence and cartel wars. The U.S. Department of Agriculture inspects all imports for foreign pests, and one inspector received a threatening message on his official cellphone on Saturday. The USDA announced avocado imports are on hold until further notice while it works with Mexican producers and local authorities to address the threat. On Monday, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador suggested the suspension is a political or economic conspiracy against Mexico since it happened the same day growers released a Super Bowl commercial promoting guacamole. The U.S. grows roughly half of its own avocados.

Are avocados a dangerous business? The United States has worried for years that gangs extort money from avocado growers and that the violence might spill over to U.S. inspectors. A similar incident happened in 2019 when a cartel directly threatened an inspector group. While the USDA did not confirm what the threat was, local authorities reported a gang robbed the inspectors’ truck and held them at gunpoint.

Dig deeper: Read Esther Eaton’s report on Mexican students who legally cross the U.S. border to attend school.