- Minerva Pérez Castro, the Baja California representative for the Mexican fishing industry’s main trade group, was killed in July after speaking out against the presence of organized crime in the fishing industry.
- Sophisticated organized crime groups have long participated in illegal fishing in northern Mexico, one of the most important producing areas for the country’s prominent fishing industry.
- The residences of several suspects have been searched, according to the Attorney General of the State of Baja California.
MEXICO CITY — The representative of a prominent advocacy group for Mexico’s fishing industry was killed in July after speaking out against organized crime in Baja California, where illegal fishing is rife.
Minerva Pérez Castro was shot in the town of Ensenada on July 8 just hours after making public comments about the presence of illegal fishing in the state, as well as the extortion of local fishermen and buyers. She represented Baja California in the National Chamber of Fisheries and Aquaculture Industries (CANAINPESCA), Mexico’s main trade group that advocates for the general interests of the national fishing industry.
“We express our strongest condemnation and repudiation of this act of violence that affects not only our sector, but Mexico as a whole,” CANAINPESCA said in a statement. It added, “We urge the government to take immediate and effective measures to stop the wave of violence that afflicts those engaged in fishing and aquaculture in our country.”
The states of Baja California and Baja California Sur are home to some of the most important landing sites for the Mexican fishing industry, with access to both the Pacific Ocean and Gulf of California. But that’s also attracted organized crime groups that disregard environmental regulations and often turn to violence when challenged.
Hours before her death, Pérez responded to media questions about the fishing industry’s financial losses from illegal activities and the difficulty of tracking it. “Illegal fish arrive to the same markets as the legal product but without all the production costs,” she said, referring to taxes, docking and other administrative fees paid by legal fishing entities.
She also said illegal fishing operations use larger nets than is legal, enabling them to catch more fish than permitted.
Later that day, she was shot several times in her vehicle. The residences of several suspects have been searched, the Attorney General of the State of Baja California said.
Mexico is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for people working on environmental issues, according to Global Witness, a human rights and environment NGO. There were at least 31 people killed in the country last year due to their connection to environmental causes. It’s even more dangerous for politicians working on the local and regional level.
Drug trafficking groups like Los Chapitos — run by the offspring of Joaquín Guzmán Loera, better known as El Chapo — have settled into the region and expanded their interests to smuggling and fishing, among other illegal activities.
The issue has received international attention due to the dwindling population of vaquita (Phocoena sinus), the smallest porpoise species in the world, which is endemic to the upper Gulf of California. Only an estimated nine vaquitas remain because they get caught in nets illegally set for totoaba (Totoaba macdonaldi), an endangered fish whose swim bladders are highly valued as a status symbol in China.
Pérez had spoken out against the illegal fishing industry in the past, according to CeDePesca, a sustainable fishing advocacy group that works in the area. In February, armed men came to her residence for an assassination attempt, several media outlets reported.
“[We] call on Mexican authorities at all levels to conduct a thorough investigation and not allow this brutal crime to go unpunished,” CeDePesca said in a statement.
Banner image: Fishermen in Baja California. Photo courtesy of Semarnat.
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