The Tierra Caliente of Michoacán does not shake off the constant threat of organized crime

Shortly after being assigned to the Tierra Caliente of Michoacán, the agents of the Attorney General's Office (FGR) Sergio Esquivel Zavala and Omar Maldonado Susunaga were kidnapped, tortured and murdered. Their bodies were abandoned on a property near Apatzingán. It happened this February. The region is the shooting range of a multitude of criminal organizations of different caliber, a tangle of acronyms and interests that are difficult to follow, fleeting alliances and malleable loyalties. On this occasion, investigators intercepted radio communications from Los Blancos de Troya, one of the groups that move through that confusing territory, which accused them of the double homicide. A name appeared in that conversation as one of its leaders: Gerardo Valencia Barajas, alias La Silla. He was arrested this Wednesday in Cenobio Moreno, the same town to which the two FGR agents he ordered to be killed were heading before being kidnapped.

Along with him, a joint operation of the Army, the Navy, the National Guard, the Secretariat of Citizen Security and the FGR has arrested Joana Lizbeth Sepúlveda Valencia, also a member of the criminal group. Security sources in La Silla place him as a “direct operator” of Los Blancos de Troya. In addition to the murder of the two agents, his line of work includes kidnapping and extortion of lemon and avocado producers , two of the most fertile and profitable crops in the region. “He is also responsible for kidnappings and homicides,” the sources say. They were found in possession of weapons and drugs.

Los Blancos de Troya, a group that in addition to extortion is dedicated to drug and arms trafficking, is subordinate to Los Viagras, according to monitoring by the consulting firm specialized in violence and drug trafficking Lantia Intelligence. Los Viagras have terrorized the region for years, from extortion to drug trafficking, through roadblocks and pitched battles with rival groups and the armed forces. They were, among many other things, the murderers of Hipólito Mora, in 2023, an emblematic farmer converted into a symbol of the Michoacan self-defense forces who became a candidate for governor.

Alliances fluctuate and establishing precisely who works with whom is risky, but local press reports in recent months point to an alliance between Los Viagra and the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel, former enemies. The CJNG, more powerful and with a presence at national and international level, has strong interests in the region. They are not the only ones.

Last weekend, the Association of Citrus Growers of the Apatzingán Valley announced the closure of its offices in the face of harassment from organized crime . The market where they sell their products remains open, but is constantly guarded by security forces. According to the newspaper Reforma , the decision to close was due to the fact that Los Viagra, the CJNG and the Knights Templar, another group with a strong presence in the area, have moved from extortion and protectionist fees to pursuing total control of agricultural businesses.

“That is what they are after, they want to impose a way of life. They call from all sides, they keep threatening them, that is why they closed. They want to impose on their people. They want to impose and have control now, to give orders about this, to ask, to charge, about everything; to put all these kinds of orders from the top,” said a source from the Michoacan merchants quoted by the Mexican newspaper.

Apatzingán is one of the municipalities most affected by the criminal siege. Last September, farmers stopped production in the face of constant threats and the murder of a lemon businessman, José Luis Aguiñaga, allegedly at the hands of Los Viagras. After five days, however, they had to resume work. Sources among the farmers said at the time that they had been forced to do so due to pressure from organized crime and the state government of Alfredo Ramírez. Since then, the situation has continued to worsen without the authorities being able to stop it, highlighting the vulnerability of the inhabitants of Tierra Caliente.

Ramírez, from Morena, the party of President Claudia Sheinbaum and her predecessor Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has limited himself to pointing to former members of the self-defense forces as responsible. “It is an issue that has been going on for more than 30 years, it is a problem that has been going on for all these years in a situation that has already become part of daily work and what we have to do is fight it, confront it, we have located leaders, extortionists, we have arrest warrants, intelligence, to detain them,” the governor said this week. The opposition PAN, for its part, has blamed the state government for being “permissive with organized crime.”

This Monday, less than 200 kilometers from Apatzingán, the streets of Zacapu were the scene of more than two hours of gunfights between the armed forces and the CJNG, which resulted in at least two soldiers wounded by gunfire and the arrest of two of the cartel's local leaders. One of them was identified by the local press by the nickname Don Chuy. In the last year, the arrests of drug traffickers with a certain regional power have been common. So have the murders of journalists , massacres of self-defense commandos , and kidnappings. Meanwhile, Michoacán survives as best it can in the crossfire.