Business leaders from across Ensenada’s private sector held a joint press conference on July 8 to mark the second anniversary of the unsolved murder of Minerva Pérez Castro, the president of the National Chamber of Fishing and Aquaculture Industries (Canainpesca) in Baja California. No arrests have been made in the case since Pérez Castro was gunned down in 2024.
Representatives from the Consejo Coordinador Empresarial (CCE), the national trade chamber Concanaco, the employers’ federation Coparmex, and the Citizens’ Public Safety Committee of Ensenada all spoke at the event. They condemned what they called two years of impunity and demanded results from federal, state, and municipal authorities.
A Murder That Shook Ensenada’s Business Community
Pérez Castro was shot and killed on the evening of July 8, 2024, outside the facilities of Atenea en el Mar, the Ensenada-based bivalve seafood company she led as CEO. The attack came just hours after she had publicly denounced illegal fishing of lobster, abalone, and other marine species in Baja California, along with the extortion of local fishermen by organized crime groups.
Before her death, Pérez Castro had spoken repeatedly about protection rackets targeting the fishing sector. She had survived a previous armed attack in February 2024, when gunmen opened fire on a home in the King Coronitas residential area of Ensenada while she was inside. No one was injured in that incident.
Impunity Called a Threat to Competitiveness
Edgar Hernández, president of the Citizens’ Public Safety Committee of Ensenada, said the state’s high impunity rates remain one of the biggest unresolved challenges for all three levels of government. Businessman Mario Roanova added that insecurity and impunity are directly harming Ensenada’s economic competitiveness and that of Baja California as a whole.
The business leaders pointed to Operación Marea (Operation Tide), a state security initiative targeting extortion and protection rackets, as a potential step in the right direction. But they expressed frustration that the operation has not produced arrests connected to the Pérez Castro case.
A Broader Pattern of Violence
Pérez Castro had served as Canainpesca’s Baja California president since 2023. At the time of her murder, Canainpesca issued a national statement condemning the killing. The case drew international attention to the dangers facing those who speak out against organized crime’s infiltration of Mexico’s fishing industry, where illegal harvesting, extortion, and cobro de piso (forced protection payments) have become widespread problems.
Two years later, the business community’s message was blunt: without justice in high-profile cases like this one, Ensenada cannot attract the investment it needs. The organizations called on all levels of government to prioritize the investigation and deliver accountability.
This story was first reported by La Jornada Baja California.