Businesswoman who complained about extortion by cartels and illegal fishing is shot dead in Mexico

A leading Mexican fishing industry official who had complained about extortion by drug cartels and illegal fishing was shot dead in the northern border state of Baja California, authorities said Tuesday.

Unknown gunmen killed Minerva Pérez, president of the state’s fishing industry chamber. Prosecutor Maria Elena Andrade described the incident as a targeted assassination in which the victim suffered numerous gunshot wounds.

Monday’s murder in the port city of Ensenada came just hours after Pérez complained about widespread competition from illegal fishing.

But in the months before, Pérez had also complained that drug cartels were extorting protection money from fishing boats, dealers, truck drivers and even restaurants.

Andrade said: “We are investigating all issues related to whether there is a link to conflicts related to fishing.”

Pérez had complained at a press conference that “illegally caught seafood enters the same markets as legally caught seafood, but without the production costs” or the environmental standards that limit net size to protect endangered or protected species such as sea turtles.

For example, Pérez spoke of “fishing nets with meshes that are not the right size.” Nets with meshes that are too small or too narrow could catch juvenile fish or species that are not the target.

Andrade said those complaints are part of the investigation into Pérez’s murder, but her previous allegations of extortion by a cartel are not currently part of the investigation.

“We are very firm about fishing activities,” Andrade said. “We have no formal complaint about extortion payments.”

Julio Berdegué Sacristán, Mexico’s newly elected minister of agriculture and rural development, condemned the murder in a social media post, echoing Pérez’s complaints about corruption.

“We must eradicate illegal fishing in Mexico,” he wrote.

The governor of Baja California, Marina del Pilar, also condemned the attack in a social media post.

“I am determined to work tirelessly to ensure that what happened does not go unpunished,” the governor wrote.

According to the Latin American Summit for Sustainability in Fisheries and Aquaculture, Pérez worked in several companies in the fishing industry and obtained her master’s degree in administration in 2002. In 2003, she obtained the first commercial permit for mussels in the Gulf of California, according to the summit.

Vanda Felbab-Brown, a fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Strobe Talbott Center for Security, Strategy and Technology, said the case shows the government’s unwillingness to heed repeated warnings about drug cartels’ involvement in seafood production and distribution in some parts of Mexico.

The government is “completely indifferent and deaf to calls from the industry – from small fishermen to major players to fish processors – to provide protection from the cartels,” said Felbab-Brown.

“One can only hope that the terrible death of Minerva Pérez will finally prompt the Mexican government to act,” she added.

According to the Tijuana newspaper Zeta, Pérez publicly complained earlier this year that drug cartels were demanding protection payments for every pound of clams, fish and other seafood bought or sold along the coast.

Mexican cartels have a strong presence in the coastal areas, where they also engage in smuggling. And in many parts of Mexico, cartels have specialized in kidnappings and blackmail to increase their income by demanding money from residents and business owners and threatening them with kidnapping or murder if they refuse.

An employee of a seafood distribution company in Ensenada, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals, said the extortion demands have long been common knowledge in the industry.

“From the smallest fishing operation to the largest companies,” everyone is a victim of gang extortion, said the employee.

It’s not just about seafood: Mexican gangs and other illegal actors have also targeted Avocado production.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador refuses to confront the cartels as part of his “hugs not bullets” policy. Instead, he is trying to use government handout programs to gradually reduce the circle of people that the drug gangs can recruit.

López Obrador insisted the policy was working, even though figures released Tuesday showed that under his administration there were almost as many murders in June – 2,673 – as in the month before he took office in December 2018, when the nationwide tally was 2,726.

Last month, Claudia Sheinbaum became the first female head of government in the country’s more than 200 years of independence.