Rigoberto López Mendoza, nicknamed “El Pantano”, was arrested on Monday for the murder of Bernardo Bravo Manríquez, a lemon leader from Apatzingán.
Mendoza was one of the leaders of the criminal cell Los Blancos de Troya, linked to Carteles Unidos, an organization that maintains a dispute with the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG).
Bernardo Bravo, who had led the complaints for the payment of floor fees to the lemon branch, was murdered that same Monday in Michoacán.
The leader was found dead and with visible signs of violence in an abandoned vehicle on the Apatzingán-Presa del Rosario highway, in the town of La Tinaja.
The Michoacán Attorney General’s Office confirmed the crime and the discovery of the body on the road that leads to the Los Tepetates community.
Bravo led the complaint against extortion of his union in Apatzingán, Buenavista, Tepalcatepec, Aguililla and Múgica.
Governor Alfredo Ramírez Bedolla has already spoken out about the murder and offered an inter-institutional investigation, so the government is already working in coordination with the State Attorney General’s Office.
He also said that operational work in the region has been reinforced by agreement of the security cabinet.
In August 2024, another lemon leader who had denounced the criminals plaguing the region was also murdered: José Luis Aguiñaga.
The high prices of lemon, which have exceeded 100 pesos per kilogram, are not only explained by increases in fertilizers or weather phenomena.
In Michoacán, the second national producer of the fruit, extortion and drug trafficking violence that has plagued the state for six years have increased the price of citrus, as well as that of avocado.
In interview with Political Expansion In February, Bernardo Bravo assured that it was not new for farmers to pay a fee to be allowed to carry out their activities, although he maintained that this varies from region to region.
“There have been charges for a long time, because you meet these people and they ask you… That there is an impact of violence, well yes, all producers have been affected, it is not new, it has been going on for years,” stated the leader of lemon trees at that time.
