When The Government ceded Michoacán to La Familia

Borderland Beat

Note: The people of various communities in Michoacán organized several years ago, long before the current self-defense movement, in effort to rid themselves of the violence from which they were suffering at the hands of the cartels.

 

 

Rather than confronting the cartels directly, they talked to friends, neighbors, and family  in various municipalities in the region, gathering information about the cartels and their leaders.  They put this information, containing names and addresses of the leaders into a formal complaint.  In some cases it even included the cell phone numbers .  The document also included businesses, safe houses, hotels, and other assets owned by the cartels. 
 

They had in effect done all the investigative work necessary for the government to arrest the criminals and confiscate their assets.  Michoacán might be a much different place today if the government had taken action...DD

When The Government ceded Michoacán to La Familia

by Anabel Hernandez

MEXICO CITY (Apro). - In late April 2006 the head of the then Office of Special Investigations on Organized Crime (Siedo) of the Attorney General's Office (PGR), José Luis Santiago Vasconcelos, received a detailed complaint containing properties and movements of the main leaders of organized crime in Michoacán.
 

Although it was a nine folio document prepared collectively by citizens of the state, it contained  the name, signature and telephone number of a responsible person.

In the text, addressed to then Attorney Rafael Macedo de la Concha and Santiago Vasconcelos.  they were provided the names of several local leaders of drug trafficking with their home addresses, safe homes, businesses and hotels which they owned, license plates of their vehicles, and even telephone numbers by which could be investigated to apprehend.

The purpose of desperate citizens  was  to become free from the yoke of violence of criminals, and said they hoped  'this information is useful and so help us to live in peace without fear of being killed by these criminals.'

It was a federal legislator who presented the complaint, a copy of which is held by Proceso, to Santiago. Interviewed by the weekly news magazine, he was asked if he signed for it and the deputy refused to answer because as it was written he would be compromised.

Surely  attention to that complaint could have saved the chaos that now lives in Michoacán, the former federal legislator  narrates the encounter  to Proceso, but he asked not to be named for fear of reprisals and because he lives right in the heart of the Michoacán  conflict zone.

The then head of the Siedo says to the former legislator, 'he did not officially take notice. Therefore he had not signed for it, if signed, it would vouch that this existed or not.  

 A few months later it was  publicly revealed by La Voz de Michoacán that La Familia had emerged.  

The complainants pointed out as leaders of the 'Gulf Cartel cell Michoacán' Osiel Cardenas, who had been arrested, and Carlos Rosales Mendoza, also apprehended, and Nicander Barrera Medrano, El Nica, and Nazario Moreno, El Chayo.
 

These last two, punctuated the statement, 'control Michoacán.' So far they are still free.

 

Moreno Chencho was also mentioned, 'Chayo brother' (who would be executed by a rival group), Arnoldo Rueda Medina, the MoH, 'Chayo compadre' (arrested in 2009), Mario Cardenas, Alberto Moreno father, brother the Chayo ('arrested in USA'), Martin Ibarra, 'prestanombres and administrator of the estate of the Chayo and partner in the development of drugs', as 'a teacher nicknamed La Tuta (Servando Gomez Martinez), assassin and lieutenant Chayo Arteaga in region. '

They added that in 2003 all of them had orchestrated the breakout at CERESO  Apatzingán and warned: 'They have heavy weapons and a fleet of approximately six  armored Cherokees, white and gray.'

The document specified the location of safe houses, businesses, a motel, gardens and even the home of Nazario Moreno.

They claimed that behind a Costco in Morelia, at San José del Cerrito numbers 119 and 117, colony Leona Vicario, had safe houses Nazario Moreno and indicated: 'There can find weapons, armored vehicles and drugs.' They also complained of two safe houses in the same area at San Juan Bautista number 44, and the next, without number, which likewise could find drugs and weapons.

Also pointed to an address in front of Pizza Hut of Colonia Las Americas, Juan de Medina countless corner, next to the number 111, used by El Chayo and his brother Chencho. Furthermore,  next to a ice cream Bing of the Americas.   El Chayo lives with his wife (Maria Elena Loya), at street Nicaragua number 37'.
 

According to the complainants, in Augustine Ramirez 546, Colonia Margarita Maza de Juarez, between the output of the free road to Guadalajara and San Juanito way Itzícuaro, El Chayo had a cellar where he kept drugs and guns.

The home of Martin Ibarra, an alleged money launderer, placed him in the Americas LOMAS number 70, where 'can find weapons, cars, car bills, deeds of ranches and houses owned by El Chayo'.
 

Also gave references from two ranches  in Reynosa, Tamaulipas. 

They claimed that a money exchange called Barrier Currency Trading Center, at 122 Ponciano Arriaga, Morelia, was owned by Nicander Barrera Medrano, El Nica, but it was a family name.

In the list of assets owned by Barrera Medrano allegedly included Oasis motel off of the freeway to Guadalajara, 80 Grove Street, Colonia La Loma and to date is still running.

The paper referred to a woman, Silvi, who was then living in Uruapan (Street number 22 2 colony Eduardo Ruiz) and allegedly had a relationship with Barrera Medrano. To top it off they gave the number of a cell phone used by Nica and said that then he lived in the fancy San Javier subdivision in Monterey.

'The military intelligence tracked (Barrera Medrano) to Monterrey, but could not apprehend him  because he was escorted by Nica and  more than 40 armed men, among whom were several authorities in Monterrey'.

They gave details of the orchards in the municipality of Ario used both for planting peach and avocado as for the production of synthetic drugs and weapons storage.

They mentioned the Santa Elena ranch and orchard Loma Bonita, which, it exposed, had belonged to Armando Valencia Cornelio, but it was now owned and administered Nazario Martín Moreno Ibarra.
 

As safe houses of Gómez Martínez, La Tuta, in Arteaga, it mentioned two houses: one in Doctor Miguel Silva 53 and and another  without number, also an address 'on the corner of Avenida Independencia streets Principal.

Nobody paid any attention

The Michoacan told the PGR and the Siedo the research had been done in just over a month and that they had made contact with members of military intelligence Morelia, but to no avail.

They 'referred most of this information to military intelligence, but it's almost 22 days and we see no progress. Need to help us (...) but military intelligence personnel told us that we should  not trust anyone, because a detainee who escaped  Apatzingán spend time  with a detainee in a barracks with  them. '

In the letter to Macedo de la Concha and Santiago Vasconcelos, Michoacán citizens asked the authority  to keep in touch for more information and even  offered two witnesses of crimes who were there at beginning to form The Family, provided that they  were placed in the witness protection program.

All details and effort offered by citizens were ignored.

In principle the holder of the document said he would have taken the document to PGR,  but not being sure that he would have given it the right person to receive it at Siedo, so he asked a federal legislator from Michoacán to deliver it.

'When I saw the information,' 'It gave me goose bumps, it was very risky. But I said: 'If I didn't take it, then on who is are the people going to trust?

Thus, in late April 2006 he made an appointment with Santiago Vasconcelos and when he was with him in his office told him he was going to deliver a document which you probably already knew. According to the testimony of the legislator, the head of the Siedo said he would treat it like any other unsigned document because it was not signed by all of those complaining.'
 

'I said it was not just another unsigned document either because it came with the name and phone number of the a responsible person who complained, and came with a lot of information about organized crime in the state, and the least we could do is the PGR  to investigate and verify information.
 

You do not want to sign for it.  You do not want to acknowledge it?' The spokesman from Michoacán asked. 

“I would be compromised" said the deputy. 'and you are not going to put the blame on me'. And he ended the meeting.
 

'Why, if they had that information did not stop these people and put and put them away then?   The cartels and crime have grown. The question is: Did they grow free or have they received some help from the government?' Continued the former deputy.

This despite the fact that 68% of the total population of Michoacán is under the yoke of drug traffickers.

Source: El Diario Coahuila

                                                    Rafael Macedo de la Concha
Macedo de la Concha is being accused of protecting Joaquin el Chapo Guzman Loera, the most famous living drug trafficker on the planet still at large during his time at the Procuraduria General de la Republica under former president Vicente Fox.

 

                                              José Luis Santiago Vasconcelos
Assistant Attorney-General at the Organized Crime Specialized Investigation Office (SIEDO), Mexico's top anti-drug prosecutor.  José Luis Santiago died on 4 November 2008 when the airplane he was traveling on crashed in Mexico City.

Nicander Barrera Medrane, El Nica
(This is the only photo that I could find )

                                                       Nazario Moreno, El Chayo   
The official story is he was killed in December 2010 following a two-day gunfight with the Mexican federal police in his home state. In the shootout, his body was never recovered because his gunmen managed to carry out several of the bodies, including his, up the hills. Although no official reports exist, there are rumors that Moreno González may be alive and leading the Knights Templar Cartel, the split-off group of La Familia Michoacana.

Servando Gomez Martinez

a teacher nicknamed "La Tuta", who now appears to be the leader of the Knights Templar.