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Thursday, August 25, 2022

Cartel de la Sierra Interferes In Tortilla Market, Mandates Low Prices In Iguala, Guerrero

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. 

Photo: Proceso

The messages read:

Starting the day of August 15, in order to support the families of Iguala, the price of
Kilo tortillas: 21 pesos
Kilo dough: 12 pesos
Kilo price for taco salesmen: 19 pesos

Sincerely, La Sierra

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.



The messages from October 2021 read:

Actions not words, supporting the people starting today:
Kilo tortillas: 26 to 23 pesos
Kilo dough: 15 to 12 pesos
ZERO FEES AND EXTORTION!

Sincerely, La Sierra

Noventa Grados reported that months after that, in June of 2022, the same criminal group ordered tortilla shops to raise their prices, in order to make enough money to pay their extortion fees.

Sources: El Financiero, Proceso, Noventa Grados, Animal Politico, El Economista, ENSANUT Data

33 comments:

  1. 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.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Common thing in small towns, not new.

      Delete
    2. 26 to 23...those 3 pesos was for them. Now that it's 23..those 3 pesos still for them...tortilla seller gains 0 pesos.

      Delete
    3. 6:03 unbelievable, that cartel should work at the tortillas factory. Practically the mom and pop are producing something for free, no profit margin.

      Delete
  2. What 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!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Was 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?

    ReplyDelete
  4. The 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.

    ReplyDelete
  5. El Cartel de Las Tortillas. A ver si bajan el precio de los Tacos al Pastor

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Orale Don Rambo

      Delete
    2. Orale Vato ! Shout out to Anonymous 4:25 pm

      Delete
    3. Ay nomas! Pura gente del Comandante.
      Rambito can I get a shout out too

      Delete
    4. We are the absolute mob of El Commander JRambo

      Delete
    5. 7:04:
      I don't know how to put the laughing emojis in my comments so you will have to just imagine them.

      Delete
  6. Whatch them extort them more they want tortillas for free

    ReplyDelete
  7. Why don't they do this to the bigger companies there? Rat bastards.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 5:41:
      Bigger 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.

      Delete
    2. 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.

      Delete
    3. This 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.
      My understanding is that the Ford and John Deere factories moved production from affected facilities to other facilities.

      Delete
    4. 10:22 puro pinchi yonke,
      Who 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.

      Delete
  8. These guys love their tortillas

    ReplyDelete
  9. Tortillas should be banned in Mexico. last i heard mexico was one of the most obese countries in the world 2nd behind US

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tortillas are nutrition, they have natural additives, no preservatives like in the USA.

      Delete
  10. The price of bolillos and Coca Cola also needs to come down.

    Queso

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Queso, you need to come down and smell the cheese...

      Delete
    2. Price won't come down, but you can start eating half and stick it to the food merchants...

      Delete
  11. This where I draw the line.Cocaine and beheadings fine but messing with the tortillas ,that's it I'm mad.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Time to protest at almost palace.
      Tortilla Lives Matter.
      We will burn cars, buses.

      Delete
  12. 9:58:
    Along with gas and a lot of other things.

    ReplyDelete
  13. All this talk about tortillas is making me hungry damit

    ReplyDelete
  14. Replies
    1. I 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

      Delete
    2. Try 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.

      Delete

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