A decade after vigilante uprising, extortion and threats against lime growers return to west Mexico

By MARK STEVENSON
Associated Press

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The kind of mass threats and extortion of lime growers in the western Mexico that sparked a civilian vigilante uprising ten years ago have returned, and growers say they can’t get their crops to market. One lime grower who asked to remain anonymous for security reasons said Thursday that the local drug cartel had increased the price of protection payments five-fold in the space of weeks. The government of Michoacan state said it will launch a criminal investigation into the shake-downs. The situation threatens a mainstay of Mexican cuisine, and recalls the darkest days of the country’s 2006-2012 drug war.