Speaker 1: Ola Latino USA listener, it's mariaino Hosa today. We're going
Speaker 1: to share an episode of Caliber sixty. It's a podcast
Speaker 1: by our colleagues over at Texas Public Radio. The limited
Speaker 1: series with episodes in both English and Spanish, as hosted
Speaker 1: by Mexican journalists Stefania Gurbi and Argentine photojournalist Doya Sarno Jordan.
Speaker 1: Caliber sixty dives into how the trafficking of illegal arms
Speaker 1: from the United States to Mexico impacts on the displacement
Speaker 1: of Mexicans. On episode one, we meet Linda, who is
Speaker 1: forced to flee her hometown of metre Kan, which is
Speaker 1: the avocado capital of the world as armed groups tightened
Speaker 1: their grip of the lucrative avocado industry with weapons smuggled
Speaker 1: from the US. Here's Caliber sixty Episode one.
Speaker 2: This podcast was supported by the Pulitzer.
Speaker 3: Cent She is as Nero.
Speaker 4: When Ninda makes mole, the traditional Mexican dish that combines
Speaker 4: over forty ingredients, she doesn't need a recipe. She remembers
Speaker 4: every step by heart.
Speaker 5: Will not slept on muchos, condiment tabli, calamia.
Speaker 4: Chili, cinnamon, peppers, cloves, and sometimes even chocolate. Recalling these
Speaker 4: ingredients reminds her of home. Simmering pots fill her kitchen.
Speaker 4: She smiles. She recounts the natural beauty of her home
Speaker 4: in Mexico, the one she was forced to leave.
Speaker 5: Cerro and Precioso.
Speaker 4: Xtao, Michok and is now a place she can visit
Speaker 4: only in memory.
Speaker 6: The smell of fresh tortillas wafts off the camal. She
Speaker 6: offers the option of corner flour to go with them.
Speaker 7: Joe and.
Speaker 6: Last see nixt She had a view of rolling hills
Speaker 6: full of trees, a laundry business space for her family.
Speaker 6: Now she's living in a rented room that she shares
Speaker 6: with her three children.
Speaker 4: Linaver calls a yellow landscape covered by milpas or cornfields.
Speaker 4: Now it's placed by infinite rows of avocado trees espur
Speaker 4: ja maotracosa.
Speaker 6: And the reason is simple. These are communities who sole
Speaker 6: income relies on agriculture. Their land has the perfect conditions
Speaker 6: to grow a product that is in very high demand.
Speaker 7: I eat avocados probably four times a week.
Speaker 2: Avocado is amazing. It's probably my favorite vegetable.
Speaker 4: Is that a tree?
Speaker 2: I didn't even else it's the wash.
Speaker 4: In nineteen eighty five, Americans ate four hundred and thirty
Speaker 4: six million pounds of avocados per year. By twenty twenty,
Speaker 4: that number exploded to two point seven billion. I mean
Speaker 4: there are even avocado bars in New York. You know.
Speaker 8: Last year I was in New York and I saw
Speaker 8: avocados being sold in the Lower East Side for four
Speaker 8: dollars in avocado.
Speaker 6: We all love our sorodo avocado toast with poachticks or
Speaker 6: spicy wakamola while watching the game.
Speaker 4: Remember this year's Super bowlart the one We're an affairs place.
Speaker 4: Even the Garden of Eden and New York City is
Speaker 4: now the big avocado and then the catchy avocados from Mexico.
Speaker 4: How are avocados and one of the most expensive ad
Speaker 4: placements in the world.
Speaker 6: Well, that's easy. This is a three billion dollar business
Speaker 6: driven by a voracious demand from the US, and the
Speaker 6: main producer is Linda's home, the Mexican state of Michua Kan.
Speaker 5: And Tremas mirawanke.
Speaker 2: Mass plantaw Nawakate.
Speaker 6: So for people in Mitcha Kan, changing their crops to
Speaker 6: avocados meant having more income, living in a better house,
Speaker 6: and finding a livelihood that could give them new opportunities
Speaker 6: in the agricultural business, but.
Speaker 2: New money doesn't go unnoticed.
Speaker 3: The weekend, the US temporarily banned Mexican avocados due to
Speaker 3: a security threat. I thre at highlighting the criminal element
Speaker 3: that continues to afflict the avocado market.
Speaker 4: Avocado imports came to a screeching hold right before the
Speaker 4: twenty twenty two Super Bowl, and the rotten underbelly of
Speaker 4: this industry was exposed in the United States.
Speaker 2: But this story is way bigger than avocados.
Speaker 6: It's about the complicated relationship between the violence guns perpetuate
Speaker 6: and the people that are being forced out of Mexico
Speaker 6: because of it.
Speaker 4: The story will take you from the beautiful avocado fields Emichakan, Mexico,
Speaker 4: to wineries in Napa, California.
Speaker 6: To the Nera Convention and the migrant shelters in Tijuana, to.
Speaker 4: The homes of families who've experienced grief on both sides
Speaker 4: of this endless war on drugs.
Speaker 2: I'm Toya Sarno Jordan.
Speaker 6: And I'm Stephaniacorpi.
Speaker 2: This is episode one of Caliber sixty.
Speaker 6: Pistao. Linda's quiet hometown in Michigan had remained relatively calm
Speaker 6: at the time when other parts of Mexico had become
Speaker 6: battlefields for organized crime.
Speaker 5: And lay huge until Alaska.
Speaker 6: Yes, before streets were paved, kids had fun playing outside
Speaker 6: on dirt roads. Neighbors organized parties, and like in any
Speaker 6: small town, everyone was invited.
Speaker 5: SAA.
Speaker 6: You'd chat with any what you'd meet. Everyone knew everything
Speaker 6: about everyone. That's why the arrival of unfamiliar men didn't
Speaker 6: go unnoticed.
Speaker 2: They weren't from around town ni nis. They never said
Speaker 2: where they came from or share their names.
Speaker 6: The first time Linda saw weapons in Nistado, they were
Speaker 6: hanging off the shoulders of these men who drove by
Speaker 6: in SUVs. As weeks went by, these appearances became more
Speaker 6: frequent and the SUVs multiplied.
Speaker 5: So did the guns and semana iran guatre, communitas, yamas,
Speaker 5: genas de ombres armaos.
Speaker 6: By the third week, there were four trucks filled with
Speaker 6: more men. They stopped occasionally to buy things at the
Speaker 6: store and continued on their way.
Speaker 2: But the real problems began when they decided to stay.
Speaker 5: And those sim Al Principioira Berque Casa Stavasola.
Speaker 4: They started squatting in abandoned houses, many left behind by
Speaker 4: people who migrated to the US. But once all the
Speaker 4: empty houses were taken, they began forcing families out of
Speaker 4: their own homess. At gunpoint, people were cast to the street.
Speaker 4: How do you say no to an armed group of men?
Speaker 5: In Nanoche Domavan and in Persona and Lassos Albiento.
Speaker 4: Linda recalls that these men often got drunk and gunshots
Speaker 4: could be heard throughout the evening.
Speaker 2: The still Knights of Victo had ended. But why Cartels
Speaker 2: across the country are fighting for the lucrative drug traffic
Speaker 2: and routes into the United States.
Speaker 6: So the latest figures are around thirty nine dead. Now
Speaker 6: this is you said.
Speaker 7: This is an area right on the border of Michoka.
Speaker 9: The average American now eats seven pounds of avocados a year.
Speaker 7: The demand has made a lot of farmers in Mexico rich,
Speaker 7: but it's also drawn the attention of organized crime.
Speaker 6: Avocados the crop that brought money and abundance tweaks that
Speaker 6: has got the eye of the Nartico group Los Viagras. Yes,
Speaker 6: like the little blue pill, all narticles are after one thing, money,
Speaker 6: regardless of where it's coming from.
Speaker 5: In a Raniolonico, Cassian rapidiles quotas, alas, personas, quetin and su.
Speaker 4: Linda explains that Los Pviira's began charging avocado farmers a
Speaker 4: fee when the could costume their lives if they failed
Speaker 4: to pay. Extorting avocado farmers was Los Vieira's way into
Speaker 4: the industry and into new territory.
Speaker 6: Sadly, this is nothing new in Michokan.
Speaker 5: Borgue deecho, joponescucha, loslaso cito, Jossia is to solampas and peliculas.
Speaker 4: This only happens in movies, Linda thought to herself when
Speaker 4: news of violence in nearby t began to build fear
Speaker 4: in Nikstado.
Speaker 6: Many towns in Michokan were invaded years before the Kikstado
Speaker 6: when the infamous Mexican drug war began back in two
Speaker 6: thousand and six. Peace died a long time ago in Michokan.
Speaker 4: And American guns are fueling this violence. You're listening to
Speaker 4: caliber sixty. Stay with us, Welcome back to caliber sixty.
Speaker 4: The size of avocados is measured by caliber, just like ammunition,
Speaker 4: and this story is about America's obsession with both.
Speaker 2: For decades, the US and Mexico have.
Speaker 4: Been in constant negotiations over how to deal with migrants, drugs,
Speaker 4: and guns funds moving across the border.
Speaker 7: One of the flows that has been widely identified is
Speaker 7: that while drugs flow north, money and weapons comes out.
Speaker 6: That's Cecilia for Fan Mendez, a security expert at U See,
Speaker 6: San Diego and co founder of Mexico Violence, a think
Speaker 6: tank that researches violence trends in Mexico.
Speaker 7: So increasingly, what we're seeing in Mexico is people being
Speaker 7: violently displaced from their communities from groups that are actually
Speaker 7: heavily armed.
Speaker 6: She adds that these displays of weapons helped create a
Speaker 6: perception of power building fear within the community, like this
Speaker 6: video released by one of the most powerful groups, Cartel Halisco.
Speaker 4: The video shows several dozen uniformed men armed with military
Speaker 4: grade weapons, including fifty caliber sniper rifles, alongside a convoy
Speaker 4: of armored vehicles.
Speaker 8: When you go to the forensic cloud where there's been
Speaker 8: up to one thousand dead bodies, just bodies everywhere. Right
Speaker 8: in the next room is the women and children looking
Speaker 8: for their disappeared. You know, you could smell them, for
Speaker 8: goodness sake.
Speaker 4: That's Smothy Sloane, ATF's former attache in Mexico City. He's
Speaker 4: seen up close the deaths these weapons and drugs are causing.
Speaker 8: Realistically, at least eighty percent of the firearms in Mexico
Speaker 8: co for the United States.
Speaker 2: That's right.
Speaker 4: By tracing these weapons found in shootings in Mexico, Sloan
Speaker 4: and his team were able to estimate that around eighty
Speaker 4: percent of all firearms in the country come from the
Speaker 4: United States.
Speaker 10: In all of Mexico there is only one legal gun store. Somehow,
Speaker 10: the country is still littered with high powered weapons, mostly
Speaker 10: smuggled from the United States. Now, the Mexican government is
Speaker 10: taking an unprecedented step suing arms manufacturers in US federal court.
Speaker 6: In twenty twenty one, the Mexican government suit eleven American
Speaker 6: gun manufacturers like cold Smith and Wesson and Bereta. Here's
Speaker 6: Alejandro Clorio, Mexico's lead attorney in the lawsuit.
Speaker 9: The gun industry the big manufacturers that were suing are
Speaker 9: on notice and are aware that their products are sold
Speaker 9: to cartels to criminals, and they have done nothing to
Speaker 9: change this.
Speaker 6: The lawsuit six ten billion dollars for the negligence that
Speaker 6: has let millions of guns slip across the border and
Speaker 6: We're not just talking about pistols.
Speaker 9: Let's remember that in Mexico we have civilians committing crimes
Speaker 9: with military style weapons, weapons that shouldn't be in the
Speaker 9: hands of civilians.
Speaker 2: Celario is right.
Speaker 4: In March twenty twenty two, the Mexican Army seized a
Speaker 4: historic amount of high powered weapons and ammunition, including six
Speaker 4: fifty caliber weapons, one hundred and thirty long guns, and
Speaker 4: three million.
Speaker 2: Rounds of high caliber ammunition.
Speaker 4: And as mentioned in the previous news club, there's only
Speaker 4: one legal gun store in the country compared to the
Speaker 4: over fifty two thousand in the US.
Speaker 6: Celaria believes the Mexican government is doing the best they
Speaker 6: can to keep guns out of the hands of criminals.
Speaker 9: The governments have been doing their job, but what about
Speaker 9: the corporations.
Speaker 4: The lawsuit has been criticized for being politically motivated, but
Speaker 4: something needs to be done. More and more military grade
Speaker 4: weapons are being found in crime scenes in Mexico. Now
Speaker 4: the concern isn't just how many, but how big.
Speaker 6: Viral videos from the twenty twenty three capture of a
Speaker 6: chapel's son a video Guzman, shown narcos firing at military
Speaker 6: helicopters and airplanes with fifty caliber machine guns.
Speaker 4: In other words, these are civilians trying to shoot down
Speaker 4: Mexican military helicopters with US military weapons. Violence keeps reaching
Speaker 4: new levels in Mexico.
Speaker 6: Left with no protection from authorities, grassroots groups sprouted in
Speaker 6: mech Gan and back in Nixtao. That glimmer of hope
Speaker 6: was called Pueblos or United Towns.
Speaker 5: Yo Lads, Nava Mahina and Costa Cali and vinoss Alvarnos.
Speaker 6: Linda was excited that someone finally came to rescue them
Speaker 6: from the hold of the narco group Los Viagras. In
Speaker 6: twenty twenty, the vigilante band of farmers Pueblos formed to
Speaker 6: defend the avocado crops from narco control in Nizioco.
Speaker 2: More Momento, the defenser territorial.
Speaker 4: Idni Alvarez, a sociologists and researcher from the Corregio and Mexico,
Speaker 4: explains that these self defense groups emerged as a means
Speaker 4: to defend their territory. The self defense groups like not
Speaker 4: only fight with weapons, but with politics.
Speaker 3: The clarato to defenstrate politica.
Speaker 6: Small towns supported by self defense groups suddenly had political
Speaker 6: average and the attention of local governments for a community
Speaker 6: held hostage by narcos, this might be the only option.
Speaker 4: Pos secretly approached Eto, offering their help to fight off
Speaker 4: the narcos.
Speaker 2: Leo Priami sequs No.
Speaker 6: Linda didn't want her children around weapons, but under the
Speaker 6: grip of narco control, Etto had no choice but to
Speaker 6: join Pueblos.
Speaker 4: A few months later, the true motivations came to life.
Speaker 4: More of this on the next episode of Caliber sixty,
Speaker 4: Papastan and Cielo What can.
Speaker 6: I tell his son? Your father is in heaven?
Speaker 2: Caliber sixty is.
Speaker 4: Reported and produced by Stefania Korbi and me Toya Sarno Jordan.
Speaker 4: Producer Jacob Prosardi created all the sound design and original scoring.
Speaker 2: For this podcast.
Speaker 6: Audio editing by Bennett Smith. Our editor is vet men Abides,
Speaker 6: Associate editor of TPR and TPR and Ossias and Then
Speaker 6: Katz is tpr's vice president of News and our executive producer.
Speaker 4: This is a production of Texas Public Radio with support
Speaker 4: from the Pulitzer Center and the Catena Foundation.
Speaker 2: Until next time,