How Drug Dealers’ Failed Lime Foray Is Carstens’ Victory

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The Mexican army is helping central bank Governor Agustin Carstens rein in inflation.

The annual rate of inflation fell for the first time in four months to 4.63 percent in May, with lime prices dropping the most since April 2011, after the government sent troops to western Mexico to ensure the safety of farmers who were being extorted by drug cartels. The prices of the fruit, which accompanies everything from tacos to beer and salsa, doubled in the first four months of 2013 as barricades set up by the farmers to protect themselves disrupted shipments from the nation’s biggest lime-producing region.