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Monday, March 21, 2016

IRIS: A "Guerrilla" Against Corruption






By: José Gil Olmos | Translated by Valor for Borderland Beat

Another ingredient has been added to the chaos occurring in Michoacán: a group emerging in the troubled Tierra Caliente region.  But according to its members, it isn’t a cartel or an autodefensa group…nor does it even have high-powered weapons.  It is called IRIS and, as its spokesman says, its goal is to unmask-pacifically-corrupt politicians, beginning with Silvano Aureoles and Alfredo Castillo.  Mexico needs a spark that detonates change, he says, and “we want to be that spark.”

With only two videos that are less than a minute long, shared on social networks in February, the Insurgency Group for the Institutional and Social Rescue (IRIS) put Michoacán Governor Silvano Aureoles on alert, who also disqualified them saying that they are a “joke”.

In an interview with Proceso, José María, spokesman and representative of this armed group, argues that the governor made a deal with drug traffickers and announced a declaration of war against all politicians who are linked to organized crime.

The meeting with a dozen members of IRIS took place in the mountainous area of Michoacán that borders with the state of Guerrero.  Along the way, squalid shacks are seen inhabited by the people who barely survive from the planting of corn and avocado, and the possession of some cows and chickens.

“Our area is Tierra Caliente, that is where we met for eight months to make the decision to rebel.  We know that the government is already investigating us and we are in the midst of criminals, but we couldn’t sit with our arms crossed,” José María explains, moments before starting the interview.

Flanked by Pável, another member of this group, the spokesman of IRIS rejects the descriptions used by the government of Silvano Aureoles and even from members of the Catholic Church, in response to messages on social networks with which the group unveiled on February 6 and 22.

He claims that it’s an insurgent social movement that does not rule out the use of weapons, but only to defend themselves.  He announces that its strategy will be more political and of denouncing-directly or through social networks- mainly with politicians who are in collusion with organized crime such as Alfredo Castillo, who is accused of having made a pact with Los Caballeros Templarios, the Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación, Los Viagras, and the H3.


“We are the people, we are not a cartel, we are not terrorists, we are the tired people who are organizing.  While we operate clandestinely today, it is for our safety, because we want this to transcend, we want to be the spark that Mexico needs to change.  We are not the only ones who think that our country is wrong.”

“The people shouldn’t fear the government, it’s the government that should fear the people and for this to light, what is needed is a spark and we want to be that spark,” José María says.

The IRIS spokesman pays tribute to the michoacanos who have fought for the country’s transformation, such as Melchor Ocampo and General Lázaro Cárdenas, and states that the insurgent movement that he heads should not be the exception in these times when an urgent change is needed.  “We are prepared to go to the ultimate consequences,” he states.
 
IRIS. Clandestine struggle
Photo by: Miguel Dimayuga
Common People

Against accusations that it could be similar to an autodefensa group of Tierra Caliente, which [some] are now part of new criminal groups, such as the H3 led by El Americano, or who have joined the Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG) or La Nueva Familia Michoacana, José María says that in IRIS, “there is no kind of person who has anything to be ashamed of”; it is made up of farmers, ranchers, teachers, restaurant owners, and professionals.

“We are citizens who decided to leave our comfort zone to go out and do what is necessary for the people to rise up,” he says in the interview, where he also states that although its presence has only been in social networks, they will soon take it to other stages, including Morelia, the capital.

“We are organizing because Mexico can’t take it anymore, Tierra Caliente can’t take it anymore; we are tired of them seeing our faces as chumps.  We are not chumps for the government to come taunt us riding their circuses.  Everything that happened with the autodefensas with Alfredo Castillo was a circus of major proportions.  It’s time to give back to this corrupt government some of the damage that they’ve done,” he warns.

-Is IRIS an armed insurgent movement?

-Yes we do have arms to defend ourselves, weapons that are not illegal, that are not exclusive for the Mexican Army’s use; they are weapons to defend us from the government.  When they come to try to end this spark, we will defend ourselves.  I don’t like guns, I believe more in the institutions, I’m not armed, but when the institutions are corrupt, when the laws only serve to give impunity to the corrupt and to fuck the people over, it’s valid for the people to take up arms to defend themselves, not to cause harm.  We are not going to do harm, we are going to defend.

 -How long have you been organizing?

-Eight months, and with the idea, more than a year but by meeting, organizing, and cooperating less.  It’s been very difficult to get weapons that are not for the exclusive use of the army, they are weapons that the people use to defend themselves in the field, weapons that the people use in the mountains to hunt, eat, to survive.  It’s been very difficult to start a movement like this without the government noticing it.

-You guys have government surveillance, even organized crime, the Mexican Army, and the police over you; it seems almost impossible for an insurgent group to emerge like the one you guys are raising in the midst of a situation where it’s a war with everyone against everyone.

-Yes, it would be impossible because the line that divides the criminal cartels from the government is nonexistent.  They are the same, organized crime and the government are the same.  If one seeks or wants to acquire weapons, sometimes organized crime realizes it faster and it [organized crime] is the first that advises the government, because they live in collusion with each other that allows them to coexist.  For a corrupt government to sustain itself, it requires organized crime; and for organized crime to survive, it needs a corrupt government.  So, they are absolutely the same.

“We are building a movement based with the people.  There are business owners, farmers, people who live well, they get enough to live, they don’t need to be in a movement like this because in one way or another, they have a profession, another job and they have a lot to lose.”

“But if they decided to get rid of amenities to take a risk it is for the simple reason that they are tired of even though they live or have something to eat, it infuriates them that there are those who come and enclose themselves in the government without working or making an effort like them, without having to get up early or to stay up late to bring food home, they live the way they are never going to live.  There’s nothing wrong with being rich, what is shit, what is rude, an insult to the people, is being rich at the expense of the people.”
 
Spokesman of IRIS
Photo by: Miguel Dimayuga
The spokesman of IRIS clarifies that they are not an autodefensa group, even though some of them were directly involved or supported the movement initially led by José Manuel Mireles and Hipólito Mora.

He points out that the autodefensas did their part with honest people, but unfortunately they focused badly on their struggle, because the problem was the government and in the end, they were infiltrated by organized crime which, he says, “exists because the government wants it to, because it suits them, because it’s an instrument used by the government to keep Mexicans fearful.”

-Just like the autodefensas composed of criminals made a pact with the government, would you be willing to negotiate with the government?

-No.  We will not negotiate with them because they are the problem.  We know that there are good people in the government, we trust in the army, we call on the honest generals, the colonels who run risks, the troops, to support us.  We call on the good members of the federal police: to stop screwing over the people.

“We will not negotiate with the government because we are a legitimate movement, of the people; and if the problem is with the government, how are we going to negotiate with them.  The government needs to change, the acts of corruption need to be investigated.  I’m not happy with the explanations of the Casa Blanca, I’m not happy that a couple of companies take all of the public works, I’m not happy with the lavish lifestyle of the presidential family."

--And now they say that El Chapo financed political campaigns...

--It’s part of the circus.  I’m no longer surprised, it’s something that the whole world knows.  What they say won’t surprise us, we’ve lost the ability of surprise.  The problem in Mexico goes beyond seeing who financed the politicians, if it was El Chapo, or if it were Los Zetas, it’s no longer a surprise.  Mexico’s problem is embedded in the institutions, it’s the corrupt government, it’s those who are at the top.

José María warns that this situation will not change with elections and political campaigns because the system is designed so that the most corrupt are the candidates and it’s them who are the ones in Congress.

-“How are they going to attempt to change the problems of a municipality in Michoacán or of the country if shit gushes out through the windows of the National Palace?” the IRIS spokesman asserts, who proposes the start of a social insurgency movement across the country.
 
IRIS members in Michoacán territory
Photo by: Miguel Dimayuga
Castillo’s Circus

José María argues that the ex-commissioner sent in by Enrique Peña Nieto, to fix the situation in Michoacán, Alfredo Castillo, was a farce and a circus because it actually empowered criminals and the few good people that were in the movement of the autodefensas were stuffed in jail or fear for their live, because there are still criminal cartels, the same ones still operate, they just changed names.

Castillo and the government of Peña Nieto, says José María, “confided more on murderers and criminals who took advantage of a movement to satiate and dispute criminal plazas as well as ordered the people to risk their lives against a criminal group that did a lot of damage to Mexico and Michoacán,” he says.

-Who did Castillo pact with?

-With the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, with Los Templarios, who did so much damage to Mexico and Michoacán.  He made a pact with drug traffickers.  But I don’t know who are more dangerous, if it’s them or the ones that came with Alfredo Castillo, who are still stealing, kidnapping, and extorting.   They are very efficient at kidnapping and the people are afraid to denounce them.  What the Templarios used to do, the people that came with Castillo are now doing the same to the people.

The arrival of Aureoles to the government seat didn’t change the situation, says the spokesman of IRIS, who says that the perredista (PRD member) is only a decoration and didn’t win the elections…he was imposed “as a reward for selling the patrimony of Mexicans from Congress to approve reforms.  Here is your prize: Michoacán.”

­-What has happened to Michoacán after Felipe Calderón’s declaration of war and the continuation of the same war made by Enrique Peña Nieto?

-Fox promoted a power vacuum; he stopped going after criminals, criminal cartels began to form and it weakened the institutions.  Calderón removed the Mexican Army from their barracks to fight crime, which led to massacres, assassinations and disappearances, shaking the country.  The cherry on the cake propitiated Peña Nieto.  It’s a well-crafted strategy that today the military are caring for a footballer instead of caring for the people, they are the politician’s bodyguards, of officials, of the governors.  This elaborate strategy is only the continuation of a mockery of the country.

-What is IRIS going to do in a state where the narco governs?  How will it confront the narco if they are the power?

-The narco are people, they are a reflection of a corrupt society, they are a reflection of the Mexicans who are fed up who can’t find another way to get ahead.

“It infuriates us to find that our leaders are stealing.  I think that the main problem in Mexico, more than those that are a problem, are the institutions that are rotten.  Drug trafficking is the government’s dairy cows, the milking to extort money, they pact with them and when they don’t sign, they put them in jail or they kill them because the main murderers are in the government.  Many of the dead autodefensas weren’t assassinated by the cartels, it was the government that killed them to encourage fighting between groups.

-What is IRIS going to do in Michoacán?

-It will be the spark that ignites a movement of large proportions and that promotes change.

-Do you think that the people will respond?

­-We’ll try, we can’t anticipate what we’ll achieve but we will try.  Perhaps we’ll only sow a seed, maybe that’s what IRIS will serve as, to sow a seed.

“This is a movement of struggle, of social insurgency, it’s a struggle that seeks to inspire.  Us, with the weapons that we have, a military squad would annihilate us in five minutes; but they won’t destroy our ideas, they won’t annihilate the cause that moves us.  In each person that sees us, we will have left the seed of hope and change planted.”

He states: “We are good people and you have to learn to trust us, because at the moment that they kill our hope, they will kill us as a nation.”

-What will IRIS do to gain the trust of the people?

-We will go to the cities.  Corrupt politicians will be our goals, we won’t kill them, we aren’t terrorists, we aren’t murderers.  We’re going to display them.  There will be a member of IRIS in every person who has the courage to go throw eggs at a corrupt representative.  There will be a representative of IRIS in each person who has the courage to stand up at a political rally and call out the person with the microphone as corrupt; there will be a member of IRIS in each event in which a governor or president intends to deceive the reality of Michoacán to tell them the truth.  Actions like these are what we will do.
 
Photo by:Miguel Dimayuga
Source: Proceso

59 comments:

  1. I have a feeling these guys just aren't going to make a difference. In fact I have a feeling they aren't going to make it period. We will see pictures of their mutilated bodies soon enough.

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    1. They'll be mowed down like cattle to state an example!

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    2. Yes they might be slaughtered but the seed they planted in every tired Mexicano just might bloom..the spark they've ignited might go boom thru the entire country it takes one voice to spread an idea an they have more than one voice I will pray for IRIS Viva Mexico que empieze la revolution...Viva Mexico Viva IRIS

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  2. Las batallas se pelean con calma. Siempre digan le al contra lo que quiere escuchar. Pero nunca lo que tiene que saber. - El Sol Perdido

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    1. Siempre dices tontadas pero esta bes estas an lo sierto compa

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    2. Battallas con armas nunca son con calma. Otra tontada :(

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    3. Las batallas deberian ser a chanquilazos, y que chingue su madre el que se raje o pida chichi...
      --Of course, abusing people takes a lot of high powered weapons, bombs, airplanes, mercenaries and propaganda to convince someone, anybody it is all for our common good...

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  3. Some of the very first mafias were begun in order to protect the citizens of any country nation or kingdom from the corrupt govenrment officials who they themselves asked for more taxes for example than necessary with the threat of being thrown in jail beaten or worse if someone did not comply! Add to the groups of corrupt government officials an abundance of crime and ordinary people needed protection from two sides at least! Of course funding was needed to effectively run any such operations so this is where contraband prostitution and or eventually drugs came into the scene. Eventually these needs became obsolete and were no longer necessary and ambition and greed got the best part of a good hand full of people and mafias decided to dedicate themselves to serve themselves and their purposes only.
    I for one am glad that these people have begun to take steps to try and bring down a corrupt govenrment system however I see it as a very very steep uphill battle! The best way to survive peacefully and work against the government would be to get acquainted with other groups working to inform people about wrongdoings like Anonymous Mexico perhaps just to name one and help each other obtain "dirt" on any corrupt government officials.

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    1. Excellent post. I wish you were wrong. Historic events in many places and far back in time show how good intentions founded and carried out by good people sometimes "morph" into evil things worse than the original ... or how these good movements are gradually and skillfully snuffed out with "smoke and mirrors" methods (e.g. Dr. Mireles) or blatantly and brutally eliminated as in the case of Zapata, and Colosio).

      Shit, it is so easy to find fault in the comfort of one's peaceful home, and with a full stomach.

      What would I do, if I lived in Mexico in hopelessly bad circumstances and lived with the deep hurts, anger, and other (PTSD) symptoms consequent to being victimized directly or indirectly as from seeing murders, little boys and girls sucked up into doing evil, or seeing truckloads of tortured bodies, heads and body parts displayed on church steps,or on monuments as was the case of the brave heroine,La Nena de Laredo.

      Would I take up arms to fight injustice and evil? It is easy to flatter myself and say "yes."

      But then, on second thought, I might just slink away and rationalize my cowardice to a comfort zone. No, I think,I would just stick my tail up my nalgas and criticize those ignorant peasants for daring to fight evil with make-do weapons. Yeah, pobre Bola de pendejos.

      Mexico-Watcher

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    2. Mexico-Watcher,
      In your last paragraph
      are you sarcastically criticizing those who deride the efforts of the "peasants"?

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  4. at the end of the day they will be like autodefensas and be thugs robbers and looters...only good thing that ever was honest of these punk wanna be was el dr.moreila ....and if yall wanna know more about these wanna be thugs watch cartel land....no one supported these punks and no one is gonna support these new punks...only one that can save mexico is god and in god we trust..keep faith that the sufferring will end one day when he touches...cause trust in man as we see...is a blood bath and lies...

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    1. 7:49 Man can leave God to take care of you...
      --Others will keep trying to earn their own freedoms with the sweat of their own brow, because God does not care one bit either way...

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    2. 7:49 what 'punks', PUNK?

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    3. Lmao cartel land that's your source of information lol...

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    4. I think you are right on just one point, Mexico is beyond help. Look at recent history, Iraq, Afghanistan, Siria and many more that supposedly needed help and "got it". Look at the results.

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  5. and thats the truth bb...post when people speak truth and not lies....journalism is facts...well state facts and post facts...i be posting and yall never approve my post when im stating facts...but shonuff be posting post of people hallucinating posting absurd and nonsense shit that makes no sense...if yall consider yall self journalist then do what real journalist do and thats state facts and post facts ..post comments that are facts..

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    1. @7:52 You instructed us to "do what real journalist do and thats state facts and post facts ..post comments that are facts.."
      My friend, you don't understand the purpose of the comment section of this blog. It is to allow readers to debate, to agree, to disagree, to express their opinions, and have a discussion. It is not here for the administrators to judge who is correct in what they believe.

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    2. Sound like a mayate

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    3. @dd Here amongst the pundits is easy to grow wiser. Lol. - El Sol Perdido

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    4. La verdad no peca, pero pica...
      --In a world were those in government refuse to acknowledge their dirty deeds, we will always freely suspect that they are up to something else, one dirty deed after another...
      --some day they will be applied the enhanced interrogation methods they so freely administer to their victims, after finding them "suspect"

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    5. 7:52 you can not debunk comments that may or may not be "facts", can you?
      Leave it alone, post your own coments on the report, debunk the comments, in a way that satisfies your journalistic standards and integrity, and shut the fack up!!!

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    6. How dare you making comments like this ? I mean really? Ah hella nah you ain't messing with mah Chivis fool,You trying to say that BB ain't posting "facts"? Aright.
      Chingas a tu madre then.Now that's a fact.

      From Chiraq

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    7. thank you my friend Chiraq...BTW I am thinking of looking in Chiraq for a condo. But the weather scares me ...not the violence, remember where I have been. :)

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  6. I like his rhetoric and god knows everyone here on BB hopes they can lite a spark to detonate the whole people to rise up against the little Chucky...Enrique Penis Nieto

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  7. WOW!
    --NO POS TÁ CABRON...
    --back to being anonymous insurgentes for a few more years, the good part is that IRIS has discovered that the government sucks and has been behind all their suffering and exploitation even more that the narcos...
    --people like this drove Fidel to ask Comandante Cienfuegos:
    "voy bien, Camilo?"

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    1. We never know girl do we.Mireles almost kicked it ?
      En algún momento es posible que funcione ?

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  8. Love it-not exposing the criminals but the corrupt.I think it might go over well with the people if the government doesn't find out who they are.I wonder what the good Dr. thinks?

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  9. Wtf i can take these guys out with a bb gun or a hunting bow and arrow hiding in a tree.what a joke put a 50cal or a grenade launcher than you talking bout some bizness.good luck for these guys somebody has to do some corruption cleaning.

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  10. I totally agree with IRIS for if their theory was not true Dr. Mireles would have been freed along time ago.
    Viva la revolucion.

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    1. Viva la revolucion.Viva IRIS. Viva Mexico.

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  11. I love how these m en from michoacan will stand up to the government and sicarios. Tough brave men, my respect

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  12. They are going to display corrupt politicians? Really, like it hasn't been done before. Sounds muddled-head.

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  13. do good and good will come to you...a spark is all it needs

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    1. Como podemos apoyar a IRIS ?? Que podemos hacer nosotros en estados unidos para ayudar?? Tambien estamos cansados y queremos regresar a Mexico pero no como esta Ahorita .

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  14. Mexico’s problem is embedded in the institutions, it’s the corrupt government, it’s those who are at the top.

    The system is designed so that the most corrupt are the candidates and it’s them who are the ones in Congress.

    AAAAAAAAAAAAAAMEN!

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    1. Its not nice to hear or say,but,the people of Mexico also have culpability in this mess.

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    2. 5:23 the mexican government take and usurp all the powers, with the pliant fully subsidizing complacency of the US.
      Some day the US government will be ashamed in public for all its crimes it commits all over the world behind the people's backs...

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  15. When things get bad enough that living is harder then dying people rise up. I truly hope that these guys stay safe and have a positive influence on their people's struggle for freedom from corrupt politicians and murderous drug traffickers. It may take a long time but the people will come to realize that there is only one way for them to get back their freedom and that is to join groups like these and fight.

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  16. BB in your personal opinion are they legit? What I'm asking is do they really want to expose only the government and why not the criminals is it a chance the criminals might have organised this group or do they seem legit tired like we all are of how Mexico is controlled. I like the idea they have that's why I ask is hate for them to be just another infiltrated group..

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    1. @5:57. My opinion is not necessarily the opinion of BB, only my personal opinion.

      I do believe they are legit and a manifestation of an undercurrent of realization by the Mexican people that you can't just take out the criminals, you have to eliminate corruption in the government at the same time. That is what allows the criminals to operate with impunity.

      The govt. likes to brag about all that it is doing to fight corruption and point to the constitutional reform passed last year that created a National Anti-Corruption System. So far the biggest step taken has been the creation of a special section in the AG's office to investigate and prosecute corruption cases. That section has a total staff of 12 people, including secretaries, investigators and attorneys. But there is not even a definition of what corruption actually is in the Mexican Legal system. Congress will have to pass several new laws to fully implement the reforms. But allowing Congress to write those laws is kind of like making Donald Trump head of the ACLU and NAACP.

      Mexican law allows citizens to propose legislation. In my opinion another manifestation
      of the undercurrent of realization that in order to establish a rule of law in Mexico you have to eliminate corruption is an initiative taken by a group of civil society organizations, lawyers, intellectuals, and academics nicknamed "Ley 3de3".

      They drafted and presented to Congress an entire legislative legislative framework to prevent, denounce, investigate and punish corruption at a national level (which include details of how to do it). A citizens initiative to propose legislation in Mexico requires 120,000 signatures of registered voters. The Ley de 3x3 initiative got 300,000 signatures. It will be interesting to see what happens with this proposed citizen legislation in Congress.

      I hope and I think other manifestations of this undercurrent of realization by the Mexican people that they can do something about corruption will arise and surface.


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  17. This is an answer to a readers question about the film and my opinion. I could not post your comment because it has your personal contact info in it.

    Although we had access to the film maker of Cartel Land I made the decision not to interview or promote the film. Whereas, the film was not out of the boundary of being fairly accurate, some open ended use of creative editing, resulted in it’s ambiguous presentation, which made various situations appear to be what it wasn’t. Also, they failed to present a good overview of the situation, especially from the perspective of the AD. I also felt Doc M’s history, including his decade in NorCal where he was a humanitarian for migrants, becoming the president of the largest organization of migrants in the U.S., and his diligent work with charities such as the Red Cross, where he and his daughter devoted countless volunteer hours translating medical material.
    In addition to those missing elements, the film did not establish the principle on which AD functions, namely within their constitutional right, backed by 7 articles of the constitution. Had they conducted appropriate research, they would have discovered the AD union is active in a dozen states for over 100 years, and regularly meet.
    It is not a story to be told in part, fairness requires the complete story be told. And the Castillo element. That is a huge factor at the core of AD destruction. Kill them, or imprisoned them, the Mexican way of dealing with "inconvenient citizens".
    Doc Mireles is a good man, honorable in his love and his willingness to fight for Mexico. He would be the first to tell you of his faults, he is a human being after all. His unfaithfulness made him a less than perfect husband, but that has nothing to do with the fight he led against corruption and organized crime. That is between himself and his former wife. In the same way as Monicas blue dress, and JFK's Marilyn was not the business of anyone outside the marital couples
    I hated the film maker referring to AD as "vigilantes", that goes back to not doing research. And lastly by coupling the story of the two "vigilante" group, one group at the US southern border, were white men fed up with "illegals". Their actions were motivated by fear, hate and anger. The other groupwere Mexican men, fed up with being abused and seeing their families being kidnapped, killed, extorted and raped, by the narco cartels and the cartel known as the Mexican Government. They took matters into their own hands because every agency...municipal, state and federal was not providing security of any kind.
    Tuta's men kidnapped little girls, kept them for a week or so and they were gang raped. 10 years and older, some even younger. Doc began seeing these babies coming to his clinic pregnant.
    Doc's family had kidnappings in his immediate family. including himself, one sister never returned. All families suffered in this way. The reasons the Michoacán and other states formed AD was a decision made in a life and death situation, and were acting within their rights.
    The hunters of illegals on the border cannot say the same thing.

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    1. Hmm..not to nit pick here ... but did you mean to say They also failed to present a good overview of "Doc M’s history, including his decade in NorCal where he was a humanitarian for migrants, becoming the president of the largest organization of migrants in the U.S., and his diligent work with charities such as the Red Cross, where he and his daughter devoted countless volunteer hours translating medical material." If so, I agree 100%

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    2. at least an overview of his history...where he has been and done says what a man is.

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  18. The guy in the hat is Hipolotito Mora!!

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    1. Looks like el pitufo to me, these groups are usually infiltrated right at the start, better watch out.

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  19. Chivis: Thank for your illuminating comments, overall.
    About Cartel Land. I think it was a very wise decision to distance BB from deeper involements than just friendly consultants. My reasoning is that, basically, docu-movies like Cartel Land, are heavily influenced by various unseen economic and political factors ... and these all combine to produce a "story" that "sells" widely and does not turn people off too much.

    In my opinion, Cartel Land was too "Hollywoody" and thus the kind of movie rapidly discounted and forgotten by the public.

    Given my views above, I don't know how one could make a movie for the general public that is truly effective in revealing the extent and depth of narco horrors in Mexico today.

    Chivis, you are a very wise person. God bless you!

    Mexico-Watcher


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    1. Thank you.
      I don't want to do anything or aligned myself with a party that may further harm him, even inadvertently, which this most surely would be. See the film was never intending to have anything about Michoacan AD.

      That was actually added when a friend of Matt sent him an article about AD. So he was never invested emoitionally and yes of course was eyeballing a wider audience by the addendum.

      But this is of course real life. Real tragedy. I could never see what he saw and just walk away and not look back.

      If he had attempted to visit Doc in prison etc I would have not only respected the project, I would have assisted in anyway he asked but he did not even try. and quite frnakly the movie would have been a tremendous sucess to have the Mexican Mandela's full story.

      his arrest, and treatment, torture, denial of insulin, atty and the denial of all his human and constitutional rights. THAT would have been an incredible story.

      ANd that would have earned him the academy award. Not that incomplete patchwork of real life horror and heartbreak. AD deserves a film solely about their struggle beginning how it really began. friends gathered at lunch telling the stories of pain, death and destruction, each personal story. For it was on that day the old friends said BASTA!! Let's Go!

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  20. The Drug War is an excuse used by BOTH governments, Mexican AND the United States to keep the people down and steal their lands, minerals, oil, and labor. They are not afraid of the cartels. They are afraid of new Zapatas and Villas. To los ricos in both countries, the Autodefensas smell like la Revolucion.

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  21. Desde Tierra Caliente

    Why do not la gente rise up? We are afraid. Detener o balazos en la noche. Tanto gente have been murderd en casa. They speak against Castillo pasa un semana they find dead these peoples. Los Marinas take you. No person is safe to say the truth. Como hilos en un rebozo negro son los narcos y gobernacion.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Thank you Chivis .

    ReplyDelete
  23. Wait a minute ! My personal info was in it ? How could that be ? I posted anonymous . Can you get my personal info through posting anonymous ? Are you messing with me ? If you know who I am friend me on facebook .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. come on willito, I am out of pacis today, so yo go to the naughty corner for lying to Chivis.

      The person who sent it to me IS my FB friend but he sent something in the comment that was for me and could not be for your eyes.

      Delete
    2. Chivis . I posted about the discrepancies between the film and the stories I had read. Hunting weapons , returning a wounded criminal to his family and so on . At first I was all up for the autodefensas and later had my doubts .Thank you for posting more on the doctor .
      Shouldn't compare him to JFK or Bill Clinton . Many view them as corrupt . Clinton is sleazy . Been under investigation since Little Rock . Pardoned one of fbi most wanted and has a long history of teenaged addicted prostitutes . Google "orgy island" and see what comes up. Bill just keeps going and going. I am not your friend on FB but would like to be.

      Delete
    3. Chivis, maybe he's not lying to you but thinks a comment of his that didn't go through is the one you're referring to since he can't get you out of his mind.

      Delete
    4. @Chvis: if you have time, please read this....
      https://nacla.org/news/2016/03/22/one-disaster-another-mexico%E2%80%99s-cold-war-and-war-drugs

      I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. Salud.

      Delete
    5. No sugar coating...ok?
      I find, in the most part, while not necessarily inaccurate in facts, it is simplistic in analysis, and a "fail" in its exploration of cause.

      But thanks for sharing

      Delete
    6. Big difference . The idealist are thinking about the better of society . Although I don't agree with them , they believe they could be helping the whole country . My take is that true communism has never been . Corruption always prevails at the top .
      This shit that's going on with the drug dealers has nothing to do with betterment of their fellow man . It is simply evil . Mexican law enforcement ? Always been corrupt . I believe now more of the corrupt one are being rooted out, maybe ...

      Delete
  24. They look like an 8 man gang... Not enough military training or weapons or man power to make any diffrence. Not to mention Absolutely No Financial Structure of Funding....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 6:38 would you recommend they go back to grade school before they start doing "something"?
      --How about an Austrian prep school where they learn to use the silverware and get their own Grey Poupón?

      Delete

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