An operation with a taste of déjà vu
Profepa announces another “major” operation against species trafficking. From March 11 to 15, seven southeastern states, 45 inspectors, 150 security elements. Sounds impressive, right?
The result: 138 animals rescued. Birds, parrots, reptiles, mammals. The figure has been repeated in statements like this for years.
“A total of 138 specimens were rescued”
But let’s break down the real numbers. Yucatán: 103 copies insured there alone. Oaxaca: 34 animals plus bottles of mezcal with fauna inside. The rest of the states contribute almost nothing.
What doesn’t fit on the map
Campeche: a coati. Chiapas: a spider monkey and four macaws. And then comes the reveal:
“For Quintana Roo, Veracruz and Tabasco, no irregularities were detected”
Three complete states with zero findings after vehicle filters and tours. Either the traffic magically disappeared there… or something is wrong with the detection.
The operation included markets such as Margarita Maza de Juárez in Oaxaca. There they found the usual: tarantulas, scorpions, snakes sold as if they were dried chili peppers.
The irony hurts: they verified a turtle camp and “did not detect irregularities.” Meanwhile, a sea turtle was seized in Yucatán for lack of papers.
The pattern is known: media coverage, figures that sound like victory, silence about the criminal networks behind it. The rescued animals are the visible tip of an iceberg that no one wants to blow up.
And after? Administrative procedures, exemplary to management units. The cycle repeats every season. Traffickers have probably already replenished their inventories.
More than 300 vehicles checked, 234 kilometers traveled. A lot of movement for results that barely scratch the surface of the real problem.
