Translated by Otis B Fly-Wheel for Borderland Beat from a Proceso special report
Subject Matter: Mexican Government, Jose Manuel Mireles Valverde
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required
Reporter: Proceso Redaction
Towards the first decade of the 21st Century, organized crime expanded its crime spectrum in the Tierra Caliente region of Michoacan. Not only did it keep the region ravaged by the violence associated with drug trafficking, but with extortion's, kidnappings and rape.... Unprotected by the authorities, and fed up with the wave of death and abuse, several Michoacan communities took up arms to face the executioners. A central figure in that movement, Jose Manuel Mireles Valverde tell the details of it in his book, Todos Somos Autodefensas. The awakening of a sleepy town, which also tells how the Federal Government betrayed its commitments to the Auto-defensas, to the point of even imprisoning the community. We print a fragment from the book, with the authorization of Grijalbo.
On April the 14th of 2013, the disarming of the Auto-Defensa Groups was planned and organized for May 10th, by an agreement that took place in the space now occupied by the Ceferso # 17 Tierra Caliente. During the meeting, I told Federal Commissioner, (Alfredo Castillo Cervantes): How is it possible that you are planning disarmament for May 10th if we still have Auto-Defensa prisoners, if the rule of law in Michoacan is still not restored, if we still do not have a fair distribution of justice in the state of Michoacan, if we still do not have efficient public security in Michoacan?
"By May 10th, I will have it resolved", was his response. All your imprisoned Auto-Defensas will be released; all the leaders of the cartel and their people, their Sicarios will be arrested. You are going to have a fair dispensation of justice; you are going to have efficient public security, because you are going to be public security, you yourselves are going to be backed up in large areas from the Armed Forces of the nation and the State. On one side, you are going to be forming part of the State Rural Police, on the other side they will form part of the Defensas Rurales of Sedena.
Listen Commissioner, we have had one and a half years fighting and to date we have 36 regions of the state of Michoacan clean but we still have 6 or 7 more, important areas of the state to clean....
Its all solved, you do not have to worry anymore, I have already identified the places where all the leaders of organized crime are hiding, now we need to stop. Its a matter of two or three days.
But I insisted, and he said:
In addition, I have to try to give you, all of you, your Federal licenses so that you and your bodyguards always go armed for your self defence because after the disarmament you will be the most persecuted, and they will try to execute you one by one. That is why I have to give you Federal licenses, so you can go armed all over the country and with good bodyguards. How many body guards do you need?
I only need four
I will authorize you twenty.
If you authorize me twenty armed people for my personal security, with that small army I make a revolution if it does not fulfill what is being offered.
Don't worry, just support me today with the agreements that are being made.
"Look Mr Commissioner, you are the one offering things, I am not asking anything of you, no Auto-Defensas are asking for anything. You have just offered that you are going to release all of my arrested comrades, starting with our brother Hipolito Mora. If by May 10th you have not released Hipolito Mora and all the other Auto-Defensas, we can not surrender our weapons, because you put the date, not the Auto-Defensas. If by May 10th you have not arrested La Tuta, El Chayo and Plancarte and all of his people, the Auto-Defensas will not disarm.
If you have not restored the rule of Law in Michoacan on May 10th, we will not disarm. If you have not created or have not provided a team or trained personnel that provides us with an efficient public security, we will not disarm, because right now the only efficient public security in all of the municipalities that we have cleaned is us, and now those municipalities are enjoying peace and tranquility.
If they do not comply with giving licenses to all our leaders and all our personal body guards, we cannot disarm, the war will continue, but it will not be for our pleasure or for our foolishness, it will be for the breach of the offers that right now they are guaranteeing us. But they are of language, just spoken words, and we are up to the mother with their words because they will never fulfill them, no sir.
I am giving you my word and I do, I assure you that Hipolito is already going to.... Look, we already brought 30 Auto-Defensa Groups from Veracruz, Sonora and where I else I do not know, those from here in the Apatzingan prison we are going to release in a few days.
That's what he said on April 14th 2014... I obviously never believed him, much less disarmed ourselves.
"Do not lie to us, if you are really going to comply, just do it", I said to the Commissioner. We take care not to take our weapons, we keep them to ourselves. We have always had them, we keep them to survive in the region in which we live, not to kill people. We are farmers, we are hunters. We have no need to go armed. Only when you fulfill what you say will we retire.
Very well, I just want to tell all the leaders to register their weapons and those of their body guards in order to give them licenses to carry them, transport them and take them to where they have to move to from their places of origin, for their personal security.
Okay I said, a General through a friend has donated me .308 rifle. I will tell him that tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, when I go to register that weapon, I would like a ballistic test done, so that I know that they didn't already murder someone with the weapon and try and pin that on me.
Before this comment, the Federal Commissioner told the commanding General of the 43rd Military Zone, who was sitting next to me:
How do you see this matter?
"The same thing you are saying to us", the General replied, "tell the person who is going to register your weapons. Tell him that he already spoke with us, that it is a weapon that has just been given to him, and that you want to know tomorrow if somebody was killed with that weapon."
Perfect!
That was the only thing we talked about just before the agreement of April 14 of 2014.
We were in the presidium the Federal Commissioner that Mr Pena Nieto sent for the restoration of the social and economic order of the State of Michoacan, the General Commander of the 43rd Military Zone, the Federal Commissioner of the State Preventative Police of the region and his assistant. The agreements were those offered by the Federal Commissioner and we all approved them unanimously. The only request of the Auto-Defensas was the immediate release of Mr Hipolito Mora and all the Auto-Defensa prisoners, an efficient public security, a fair administration of justice and the restoration of the rule of law.
By May 10th all the agreements had to be fulfilled, that is: all the leaders in the cartel in the State of Michoacan should be detained ( it was not fulfilled); all the Auto-Defensas Groups to be freed, including Mr Hipolito Mora (it was not fulfilled); the leaders of the social movement had to have licenses, documents and credentials for the carrying of arms for our self-defense, for our personal defense (it was not fulfilled); all the Auto-Defensa comrades who were to be integrated as State Police and as Rural Defense of Sedena must be armed and authorized. But by the agreed date there were only 750 registered of the more than 25,000 Auto-Defensa Group members that were operating for the liberation of Michoacan from organized crime and to have the social peace that we so desired.
False accusations
Later there were deadly attacks provoked by the puppets infiltrated in the Auto-Defensas, in which they wanted to involve the legitimate members of the Auto-Defensa Groups. These were the cases of the murders in Chuquiapan and in Chucutitan, in which a Federal Commander named Valerio provoked all these murders and wanted to involve El Platano and Mireles, but it did not work out. El Platano is still detained for crimes he did not commit.
After these events, another meeting was held in the 43rd Military Zone, with the purpose of determining who was responsible in the cases of Chuquiapan and Chucutitan. We were in the presidium with the Federeal Commissioner of the Federal Preventative Police, Jose Manuel Mireles Valverde, and El Pitufo, who at that time was already allied with the Federal Commissioner.
They wanted to involve El Platano, who did not attend the meeting; we only attend the leaders, the social fighters, the leaders of all the municipalities that were already up in arms. But the order was to involve El Platano, although the Auto-Defensa Groups did not accept that involvement. There he said to the face of the Federal Commissioner, called Valerio, that he had done all of the entanglement and cleansing.
After we found out that El Pitufo had armed these people that confronted the Auto-Defensas of El Platano. This made evident that there was a decomposition among some of the leaders of the real Auto-Defensas.
After this I never returned to a meeting with the Federal Commissioner or his puppets. We made a general meeting of all the Auto-Defensa Groups of the State of Michoacan in La Placita and Las Brisas, on the Michoacan Coast, to resolve the differences between us.
This meeting was only Auto-Defensas and Communitarios, to deal with the betrayal of El Pitfuo and others who were in favor of the Federal Commissioner. At that meeting, uniformed Federal Police officers tried to come in, and were asked kindly to leave the assemblies place, since it was an Auto-Defensa meeting only.
These gentlemen left the place in a very disciplined manner, there were no negative comments, there was no booing, or high spirited words; they were treated with all the respect they deserved and they respected our autonomy. They were very grateful for the act of respect towards the self defense groups. Federal gentleman thank you very much.
Otis: for further reading, click on the book link on the right hand side of the main page.
Otis you are jamming with all these articles!
ReplyDeleteGood read and information.
What I have witnessed like many. Was a movement of tremendous energy from its citizens. An energy level of great magnitude and discomfort to government officials. Where it’s apparent that government officials feared the beginning of a revolution. Moreover,where government corruption was being threatened by those principles of ruling and governance that was established for Mexico’s prosperity and being neglected.
Think for a second if Mexico’s citizens were to apply the same tactics and principles that began Arab Spring.
My opinion, Through governments eye an eyesore! A nuisance and loss of revenue!
E42
The government official assured the self defense groups, lots of assistance, but like the article says on May 10th, delivered nothing. He just wanted them to turn in their weapons, so the cartels can continue killing innocent people.
ReplyDeletebeen reading on here some for years . Still hard for me to keep it all straight in my mind . Found a article that kinda tell the whole story from the beginning but might not be up to date . I feel I have a little more understanding of it now . Heres a link
ReplyDeletehttps://theintercept.com/2016/06/29/lime-grower-uprising-against-mexico-drug-cartel/
Bit off topic but what's up with the Michoacán's avocado?They are $2 a piece whereas last year $1 so have doubled in price.Are the Cartels putting a stranghold on the growers or bad crop this year?
DeleteHis group betrayed michoacan. Their now common criminals. Then again the michoacanos still believes that there helping.
ReplyDeleteThere is no way to negociate with a dictatorship. Mexico is a narco state. Besides the political patriotic views of left and right of the Mexicans residing abroad having a utopia view of a Mexican Pedro infante era. Is about power and money. Either you ride with them or collide with them..simple reality of mexico. All the other issues social economic and son on are blow back of the main issue "corruption" the only solution is a armed revolution to replace "x" for "y" PRI for something else. I hate liberals
ReplyDelete12:41 As long as the PRI does as the US wants you wont hear a peep out of them.
DeleteVenezuela doesn't want to be a puppet so you hear about it more in the US.
I've been saying this for three years. Virrey Castillo didn't keep his side of the agreement, so there was no need to disarm, so his arrest, and the arrest of all the other ad's was illegal.
ReplyDeleteAre there any indications if there will be a book signing tour in the US?
ReplyDeleteIf there is let me know
DeleteDr Mireles got out of it alive, more than he bargained for.
ReplyDeleteI wish him all the best and thank him for the service, and sincerely hope he finds some happiness with a woman without big whiskers like his wife or a "lawyer" hungry for publicity or a mula bronca trying to score points for his campaign for governor, or una mujer Barbuda like La pitufa, or una babosa like la alfredita castillos de kagada...
Beef jerky Marlboro man ,that's what he looks like
ReplyDeleteFinished the book last night. What a read. I knew the Mexican gov was fucked up...but its almost stupidity rather than greed sometimes. I don't know how this man would stay in a country like that. The US is far from perfect, but I surely have never had worries like the people of Michoacan. People think Chicago is a lawless place. It's more like a 16 square block of Chicago is left to its own vices. Not an entire state. The ONLY thing that can save Mexico is surely a revolution.
ReplyDelete16 square blocks of Cheekagah get de populated at a time by design, for the benefit of real estate manipulators.
DeleteThey make money from the poor, sell drugs, guns, funerals, caskets, plots, insurance, corruption, whores and whoring, liquor stores, rival gangs, corrupt politicians, magnet schools that privatize education budget for worse education, and then come and make even more money from gentrification of their victim neighborhoods, only nobody is aware of the real Cheekagah criminals and their accomplices in city hall and in springfield, from both political parties...
In mexico, public corruption is all over the country, sustained by the US subsidies in exchange for ownership of state owned enterprises and their privatization by russian style oligatchs from the US and alert partners...
Welcome back E! Lol I also believe that these times of self defense groups in Michoacan and Guerrero and some sprouts in northern Mexico along with the discontent from the mexican population in general when the ayotsinapa crime of state dissapearances took place. These were golden times for the utopian and dreamers of a free mexico free not only from the narco violence but also from the corrupt , human right violating, narco-complicit, impunity giving piece of crap government that was put in place i believ not by the pueblo but by the elite using very unethical and illegal electoral tactics. One of these days ppl
ReplyDeleteWill have enough...1910 was the last time Mexican ppl had enough and el
Pueblo cuando se junta..se junta
Que viva El Dr.!!
- Guanatos
Thanks Otis B Flywheel.
ReplyDeleteMy dos centavos:
History continuosly shows that Government betrayal and blatant nefariousness "always" wins in Mexico.
I am convinced that Dr. Mireles was identified as a threat to the system by powerful others (many who will never be known). Analysts within the evil cabal then had to strategies how to deal with Dr Mileles and auto defensas movement.
Then the strategic plans were executed. Part of the plan was to avoid making Dr Mireles a martyr.... so the imprisoned him and subjected him to "out of sight out of mind" personality changing treatments that effectively neutralized him as a threat to the evil system.
The above is my broad brush take on the Mexican situation today. Historically, similar things have happened in other places where the oligarchs are threatened by "los de abajo".
IMO, as much as I love Dr. Mireles and the Auto Defense movements, Mexico will have to find another way to construct an honest government resembling a humanitarian Democracy where every child can have a chance to flower.
Here, I am especially thinking of the oppressed Mexican Indios. Their racist treatment by even the lowest mestizo is a shame and a poison killing Mexico's chances at making an honest and decent modern society. Essentially, I see the mal-treatment of Indios as an "indicator" to watch where Mexico goes, as much as I see their treatment as a problem, per se.
Mexico-Watcher
Well put!
DeleteE42
Someone needs to spread the message of jose luis lara gracian he was an autodefensa and has proof that mireles and mora are not all they seem to be but most important of the stuff that is happening in buenavista michoacan
ReplyDeleteAre you speaking about the book Cronicas de Michoacan or what are you referring to,if you disparage the dr you may be mauled with hysterics on here,just wanting to know what you mean?
DeleteMister Lara's face was never seen anywhere, while El migueladas is the hand that rocked the creddle, with the federal help of epn, general de la polesia nacional de colombia oscar naranjas, cjng, Arcelor-Mittal, and a the people offended by the CT because of their extortions and abuses and those of others with intent of demonizing the poor ct, with bad propaganda, with theexican army escorting the AD while they moved from town to town, DR MIRELES WAS THE FACE of the movement, and there is nothing to be.earned from bad mouthing his work on behalf of the people just because be fe short of the goals of freedom ad progress for the michoacanos.
DeleteEven now, the enemy continues to be Arcelor-Mittal and the allies of epn and the federal government, the PRD politician se outs, the disciples of La Familia Michuacana whose chieftain El Chango Mendez' son's picture in a t shirt of "AutoDefensas de Tancitaro" adorns the poster for the video of mister Lara.
No help was refused, el comandante pitufo was known to be the brother of el Chango Mendez wife, he also helped for a while before selling iut, but the pharisees and the philistines were the mexican federal government that bought all the judases.
Instead of belittling Dr Mireles, people need to grow the fack up, and find better younger allies, that can carry on to get a better conclusion, without slavery or traitors next time, I hope
11:12 Mireles is trash and 10:20 pm and I know this.
DeleteYou fail to understand that the people of Michoacán never rebelled against the CT or few did and all of them are nowhere to be found the lucky ones ran to Uncle Sam. In reality it was a mix of ex familia michoacana, ex zetas, ex milenio, CJNG, ex templarios, ex government and people who had a vendetta against the CT that actually fought the CT with the help of the Federal and state government. The only people who actually gave any fucks about what was happening were people living in the US who actually sent money to help.
This was nothing more than a master plan planned by CJNG, ex templarios, the federal and state government to eliminate a cartel that they didn't need and couldn't defeat. The government owed lots of favors and money to the CT.
As of today all of Jose Luis Laras old pages have been takein down from facebook he had countless documents and proof that what he preaches is true. He has a few still left open but not for long.
Words from Jose Luis Lara We were a cartel of self defense forces who were a bunch of fuckin idots who were used to clear a path for another cartel and the fuckin government.
I told Chivis and the people who administrate this page to look into it about 5 months ago.
The dude has written three books detailing not just the Self defenses Cartel beginning and ending but the whole history of Michoacán and its history of drug trafficking.
All Mireles as a spokesperson for a Cartel of Self Defense forces and the stooges that fought for that belief brought to Michoacán was more death.
The war in Michoacán is obvious Nicolas Sierra Santana El Gordo or el Coruco already said the reason its still going on. In Michoacán many people don't want El Mencho and his CJNG in Michoacán.
As for thinking that you can change anything in Mexico it wont happen you are either with them or against them.
You would have to take on the daddy of them all and how to do that?
Yes im talking about him ive always felt that there is something about mireles tht is off to me... And from ilwhat i seen his face was in the autodefensa movement
DeleteI have always hoped he was for real but at the same time I have always been skeptical . There have always been allegations . He seems to have money and worked as a volunteer in the US . Maybe is golden but maybe not . All this cartel activity upset the local applecart with marijuana producers and dealers . Kinda like the "poor honest hard working farmers" in Sinaloa that had to leave out when the military came in hunting shorty . Shit they were growing weed and poppies . Lots of deceptive criminals in this world . Don't know if merles is or not.
Delete2:36 if the farmers only grew "poppies and mariguana" what do they eat then?
DeleteThe mexican armies and marinas on polesia judiciales and mando u icon are the worst murderers, kidnappers, extortes a d assas sins all over mexico, 5HEY have other bosses, but the worst is that the US government finances all their dirty deeds.
A funny note, Dr Mireles spent years in prison, thousands of kilometers away from his home and family, and still is being demonized by the worst mexico has to offer, a known corrupt government that feeds you propaganda loaded with the most stinking lies, and none of those government has been to prison yet, the AD also cost the ct leaders their lives, quite plancarte, el chayo are dead while la puta tuta and El tio are in prison...governor Pellets Vallejo and son are out of business, while others keep up the infrastructure of corruption...please, boy, read more from other.sources, Dr Mireles was not looking for a political bone or fame and has not asked for any, far as i k ow, he lost his job on the IMSS and his pension, if he writes a book and is trying to make some money I don't blame him, but he could do some better on the US, A LOT BETTER than fight in mexico with pinchis putas hocicones con la boca llena de kagada for the table scraps and meatless bones...
All the murdering in michoacan can be blamed on ginirals in charge of the military zone and polesias from mexico city, none on mireles, google their names for the dirt on them, like giniral gurrola...
1:10 . Had to read back and see if I mistakenly put the words ONLY in my post . No mistake I didn't . It seems from your rant you are extremely one sided in your argument . As in most cases I believe the truth is some where in the middle . I don't believe "All the murdering in michoacan can be blamed on ginirals in charge of the military zone" . That would mean the narcos aren't to blame for any of it . Extremely one sided . Like I said , for all I know Mireles may be pure and golden but for all I know he may not be either . The USA seems to be to blame for it all according to some . Why don't mexico teach them a lesson and stop the drug flow north . that would fix them .
Delete11:16
DeleteAren't arguments always one sided?
The true autodefensas are a direct threat to the government officials most important source for enriching themselves: bribes.
ReplyDeleteThis is why the government and the cartels join forces to destroy the true autodefensas.
we get someone like the Doctor for President.
ReplyDeleteBrave man to go against cartels and crooked government, I'm surprised he's still alive.
ReplyDeleteI still wonder what's going on with Hipolito and Americano. My heart goes out to Hipolito for losing his son, and the many who have lost their loved ones.
ReplyDelete