Avocado Crisis: Violence and Land Theft in Mexico

Published: 06 January 2026. The English Chronicle Desk. The English Chronicle Online.

Michoacán’s avocado crisis exposes how land and life are sacrificed for international profit and demand. Communities face water shortages, environmental destruction, and constant threats as avocado plantations expand. Local Purépecha people struggle against agribusinesses extracting water from Lake Pátzcuaro to supply fruit exported globally, including to the UK. This avocado crisis directly impacts food security, livelihoods, and cultural heritage, leaving Indigenous communities vulnerable to violence while defending their ancestral lands. The term “avocado crisis” now embodies both ecological and human rights emergencies in one of Mexico’s most productive agricultural regions.

San Andrés Tziróndaro, a Purépecha town by Lake Pátzcuaro, illustrates the human cost of the avocado crisis. Once abundant, the lake now suffers severe depletion due to water diversion for avocado plantations. Fishing, a mainstay of local diets, has become increasingly unsustainable, while forest ecosystems collapse under monoculture expansion. Fires are frequently set deliberately to clear forests, displacing wildlife and intensifying soil degradation. For the local population, protecting land is not a choice but a necessity for survival. Their resistance exposes them to threats, disappearances, and killings as both corporate and criminal actors contest communal territories.

The avocado crisis has broader implications across Michoacán. In coastal regions, Nahua communities opposing mining and steel projects have faced intimidation, including murder and enforced disappearances. Eustacio Alcalá Díaz and José Gabriel Pelayo became victims after defending their land, highlighting risks for those challenging extractive industries. Activists like Claudia Ignacio Álvarez recount personal encounters with violence, showing that even peaceful interventions can provoke harassment by authorities, reinforcing fear and social fragmentation within communities.

Political instability aggravates the avocado crisis further. The assassination of Uruapan mayor Carlos Manzo, who had opposed organised crime, underscores how local governance is targeted. At least three mayors have been killed recently, leaving populations exposed and authorities unable or unwilling to provide protection. Reports from Global Witness reveal dozens of attacked human rights defenders between 2023 and 2024, predominantly Indigenous, with little progress in investigations. This demonstrates that defending communal lands and water rights in the avocado crisis environment carries serious personal risk.

International trade also perpetuates the avocado crisis. The United States, the main recipient of Michoacán’s avocados, alongside European and UK markets, sustains demand that fuels land dispossession and environmental degradation. Corporate finance and import strategies prioritise profit while ignoring the devastating social and ecological consequences. Importing nations have a responsibility to enforce human rights and environmental protections, including binding due diligence requirements for supply chains connected to the avocado crisis.

Communities respond through collective self-protection, international accompaniment, and the reinforcement of communal networks. While these strategies mitigate immediate risk, the psychological toll remains profound. Many defenders live under forced displacement, only returning briefly to ancestral lands. The trauma is collective, as violence is used not just physically but psychologically to fragment and exhaust resistance, eroding hope in the pursuit of justice.

Addressing the avocado crisis requires global accountability. Policies must respect Indigenous land and water rights, ensure consultation, and implement stringent protections for defenders. Without systemic changes, markets will continue to benefit from extraction while ignoring its social and environmental costs. For Michoacán’s communities, the avocado crisis represents far more than trade; it is a fight for memory, dignity, and survival. The international community must recognize that enjoying the fruits of extraction comes with responsibility, and turning a blind eye only perpetuates violence and displacement.

The avocado crisis continues to reveal the intersection of human rights, environmental destruction, and global trade, demanding urgent action to protect vulnerable communities. Sustainable consumption cannot exist without acknowledging the human cost behind every exported avocado. Communities like those in Michoacán are on the frontlines, defending land, culture, and survival against a system that values profit over people.

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