Toluca chicken vendors rebel against extortion by Mexican organized crime

The branches of organized crime are extending into the most unsuspecting corners of Mexican society. Vendors of chicken, one of the most basic products in the average citizen’s shopping basket, have rebelled against extortion in Toluca, the capital of the State of Mexico. The merchants, tired of having to pay “protection money” for their businesses, have hired private security services and stopped paying extortion fees to the cartels.

As of two weeks ago, when the chicken vendors decided to turn to private security to safeguard their businesses, the threats have become increasingly real: visits from alleged members of La Familia Michoacana, warehouses being burned, attacks, and robberies. On December 22, four shopkeepers were kidnapped in the early hours of the morning in a store in downtown Toluca. A security camera recorded the abduction, which took place while the workers were in the warehouse, among boxes of raw chicken. A group of men armed with rifles burst in, pointed their weapons at the employees, and took them away in a white van.

The kidnapped workers have been identified as Rigoberto Colín Consuelo (41) Jaime Ramos Reyes (22), Isidro Díaz Casimiro (40) and Eliseo Escobar Ramírez (47). According to his relatives, Colín Consuelo is deaf and mute and has three children waiting for him at home. The families are searching for the four missing persons, but the Prosecutor’s Office has not reported any progress in its investigation and has not received any ransom demand, according to local media reports.

The local press is pointing to La Familia Michoacana as being behind the threats and violence. The cartel is one of the most repeated names in the region’s crime pages and was recently involved in a massacre in which 14 people were killed in Texcaltitlán (10 of its alleged members and four civilians), in the State of Mexico. That incident was also triggered by extortion: a group of farmers, fed up with the demands placed on them and desperate because the criminal group was demanding higher payments, fought back with machetes and firearms after they were fired upon, in a pitched battle that also left 14 others missing and seven wounded.

La Familia Michoacana has gained sway in the State of Mexico, Michoacán and Guerrero. There, sheltered in a territory neglected by the authorities, it has entrenched itself as a sort of parallel government that imposes its own law under criminal logic. Despite the occasional fall of one of its leaders and the greater strength of rival groups such as the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, the organization survives and thrives: some indications even point to an expansion beyond its current areas of operation.

Toluca’s merchants have long been denouncing their abandonment by the authorities, or even the collaboration of some institutions with organized crime. “They send us messages with all kinds of threats. They have burned our warehouses, our vehicles, and have shot up our businesses. It was about a year ago when all the money they were asking for became unsustainable. We are paying for private protection, and I don’t know why [the authorities] ordered security to be withdrawn. We are tired of being charged protection money. We want to work, that’s all we want,” said a vendor in statements reported by Milenio.

This is not the first time that organized crime has targeted chicken vendors. In June 2022, shopkeepers in Chilpancingo, Guerrero, closed their stores in protest against the umpteenth crime wave in the region, which was particularly hard on the chain of chicken producers, distributors and sellers. The workers’ strike was a response to weeks of aggression in which several people were killed. In one of the attacks, at a chicken farm on the outskirts of the city, six people were massacred, including the owner and his 12-year-old daughter.

A year and a half later, Toluca’s merchants are turning to private security in a desperate attempt to resolve the situation. The vendors have repeatedly requested support from the state governor, Delfina Gómez, to put a stop to the extortion which, they claim, they have been suffering for more than three years. For the moment, there has been no clear official response, no arrests, and no naming of suspects for the crimes, while the workers face threats and violence on their own.

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