By "El Huaso" for Borderland Beat
The Cartel de la Sierra has made several attempts to regulate the market for tortillas over the last two years in Iguala, Guerrero. Most recently, last week, they announced through a barrage of narco messages posted around the city that they are lowering the price of tortillas in order to help out local consumers.
According to local news sources, about 60 of the handwritten messages were posted around the city at various tortilla stores. Proceso reported that the messages caused alarm among some merchants, who shuttered their businesses. These concerns are well founded; for the past several months, many chicken salesmen have been killed by organized crime in the nearby city of Chilpancingo, as reported by Borderland Beat.
These auspicious narco messages occur when high inflation is hurting Mexican consumers, and food insecurity is on the rise. They attempt to establish the criminal group's reputation as a helper of the people, especially when the government has failed to alleviate the effects of economic downturn for many Mexicans.
Despite the reopening of the economy, food insecurity rates are higher now than during the peak of the Covid-19 lockdowns, according the ENSANUT, a government health poll. Part of this is caused by high rates of inflation, which are felt my Mexicans when buying food. In addition to this, organized crime has caused artificial shortages of key staple foods through the targeting of merchants for extortion.
The Cartel de la Sierra, also known as Los Tlacos, is a violent, regional criminal group which operates primarily in the state of Guerrero, in southwest Mexico. They are embedded in the local extortion markets, especially in food staples.
Past Related Events
According to Proceso, this is not the first time the Cartel de la Sierra has interfered in the local tortilla market. In October of 2021, similar messages appeared at tortilla stores around the city. At this time, high inflation and pandemic lockdowns were affecting the economic well-being of many Mexicans.
Sources: El Financiero, Proceso, Noventa Grados, Animal Politico, El Economista, ENSANUT Data
Cartels get to post the prices, they want? Are they also making the tortillas? How in the hell, can they dictate a business how to run a business.
ReplyDeleteCommon thing in small towns, not new.
Delete26 to 23...those 3 pesos was for them. Now that it's 23..those 3 pesos still for them...tortilla seller gains 0 pesos.
Delete6:03 unbelievable, that cartel should work at the tortillas factory. Practically the mom and pop are producing something for free, no profit margin.
DeleteWhat a bunch of bullies! Pick on someone better funded wimps. These tortilla venders endure a long, laborious task every morning and for you to mandate pricing in a business segment with little to no barrier to entry is cruel, stupid, and acting like bullies. Sierra de Cocksuckers are verified wimps!
ReplyDeleteWas Los Tolacos the Cartel that rounded up a large amount of members of another cartel and slaughtered so many of them in front if each other?
ReplyDeleteThe tortilla makers are mostly small mom and pop operations that don't make a lot of money. They are already extorting most of the little money that they already make.
ReplyDeleteEl Cartel de Las Tortillas. A ver si bajan el precio de los Tacos al Pastor
ReplyDeleteOrale Don Rambo
DeleteOrale Vato ! Shout out to Anonymous 4:25 pm
DeleteAy nomas! Pura gente del Comandante.
DeleteRambito can I get a shout out too
We are the absolute mob of El Commander JRambo
Delete7:04:
DeleteI don't know how to put the laughing emojis in my comments so you will have to just imagine them.
Whatch them extort them more they want tortillas for free
ReplyDeleteWhy don't they do this to the bigger companies there? Rat bastards.
ReplyDelete5:41:
DeleteBigger companies have more political influence and usually private security. Rest assured, if they did this to Soriana or Walmarts, you would see a reaction from the government.
Thats not necessarily true Detroit. Within the past 5 years Coca cola, John deere and even Ford had to shut down factories in GTO, michoacan after criminal groups tried to extort them repeatedly.
DeleteThis happened to Sabritas as well. The difference is, the government went after the criminal actors in those cases whereas with the smaller businesses, the criminals often don't get arrested.
DeleteMy understanding is that the Ford and John Deere factories moved production from affected facilities to other facilities.
10:22 puro pinchi yonke,
DeleteWho cares about junk, India making good tractors you don't have to hack illegally to make them work...
Less sabritas, coca, sodas, GMO shit, better for mexican all over the world.
Tortilla Mafia
ReplyDeleteThese guys love their tortillas
ReplyDeleteTortillas should be banned in Mexico. last i heard mexico was one of the most obese countries in the world 2nd behind US
ReplyDeleteTortillas are nutrition, they have natural additives, no preservatives like in the USA.
DeleteThe price of bolillos and Coca Cola also needs to come down.
ReplyDeleteQueso
Queso, you need to come down and smell the cheese...
DeletePrice won't come down, but you can start eating half and stick it to the food merchants...
DeleteThis where I draw the line.Cocaine and beheadings fine but messing with the tortillas ,that's it I'm mad.
ReplyDeleteTime to protest at almost palace.
DeleteTortilla Lives Matter.
We will burn cars, buses.
9:58:
ReplyDeleteAlong with gas and a lot of other things.
All this talk about tortillas is making me hungry damit
ReplyDeleteThey should extort Carlos slim
ReplyDeleteI bet his name doesn't show up on any documents with respect to his real estate holdings which makes it hard to track down the actual owner to extort them. It's probably a shell company. Carlos slim is protected by the government anyway he can't be extorted
DeleteTry El Retiro Dorado de Garcia Luna, Revista Indigo published a few reports about the business partnerships of genarco garcia Luna and carlos slim helu whose brother Julian was a Comandante member of drug trafficking DFS, the intelligence police of the mexican federal government...you're welcome.
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