Inhabitants of the Avocado Region Take Up Arms to Protect Their Municipalities

ARIO DE ROSALES, MEXICO - 1 JULY 2021: A group of Pueblos Unidos, armed, pose for a photo on a road near a checkpoint where they stand guard to prevent criminal groups from entering the area on July 1, 2021 in Ario de Rosales, Mexico. Pueblos Unidos is an armed organization created in August of 2020 as a reponse to the violence, threatens and extortion against producers of the 'avocado area' in the Mexican state of Michoacan. The organization groups some 5,000 members including peasants and day laborers who dedicate one day a week to form part of the numerous barricades set up as checkpoints to prevent access by members of the drug cartels in the municipalities of Ario de Rosales, Salvador Escalante, Nuevo Urecho and Taretan. Although the inhabitants of the area have demanded security from the government, the situation is complicated as extortion grows and insecurity prevails. (Photo by Cristopher Rogel Blanquet/Getty Images)