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| All Photos Courtesy of Regeneración Radio |
Updated: Translation of Document
By: Regeneración Radio / Tejemedios
Gabriel
Caballero Farías, known as “El Plátano”, was born and raised in Caleta de
Campos, and underwent emergency surgery on December 3, 2013 because of a
condition on his cervical spine.
The operation went smoothly and the doctor, as is in other cases, prescribed him a year of rest. On January 14, 2014, a little more than 30 days after the operation, “El Plátano” joined the autodefensas of Aquila. “I went to Aquila because they had risen up in arms, I became an autodefensa because of the violence that my town was suffering through, people couldn’t even go outside, the Templarios were just doing stupid things in the town; they had threatened us all.” Such was the level of extortion for people living in Caleta de Campos; that is why Gabriel opted for the safety of his family and left his hometown to move to the city of Colima for three long years. On his exile, he left his life as a rancher, his ranch, and orchards of mango and papaya. “Here everyone knows my from when I was a little kid, they know that I’m a hardworking person and know that I’ve never been around thugs”.
The operation went smoothly and the doctor, as is in other cases, prescribed him a year of rest. On January 14, 2014, a little more than 30 days after the operation, “El Plátano” joined the autodefensas of Aquila. “I went to Aquila because they had risen up in arms, I became an autodefensa because of the violence that my town was suffering through, people couldn’t even go outside, the Templarios were just doing stupid things in the town; they had threatened us all.” Such was the level of extortion for people living in Caleta de Campos; that is why Gabriel opted for the safety of his family and left his hometown to move to the city of Colima for three long years. On his exile, he left his life as a rancher, his ranch, and orchards of mango and papaya. “Here everyone knows my from when I was a little kid, they know that I’m a hardworking person and know that I’ve never been around thugs”.
Gabriel makes
this explanation because recently Estanislao Beltrán "Papa Pitufo"
(Papa Smurf), leader of some of the autodefensas
of Tepalcatepec, has spoken criticism to the press about “El Plátano” and the autodefensas of Caleta de Campos being pseudo
autodefensas, this occurred after the
shootout that occurred on Sunday August 27 in the town of Chiquiapan.
On the morning
of February 13, 2014, “El Plátano” took his AK-47 and rode on a truck along
with his autodefensa comrades; the
community of Ostula, 30 minutes from Aquila, had just been liberated barely
three days ago by a group of locals who had also been forced to migrate from
the area and now returned as autodefensas. The autodefensas,
led by Semeí Verdía, had called on all of the communities and landholders of
the area for a meeting to address the issue of the movement. The meeting was a high calling and was attended by many of the coastal Nahua
communities from the municipality of Aquila.
The decision was emphatic; full support for the autodefensas and authorization to displace along Highway 200, which
connects Lázaro Cárdenas to Manzanillo, installing checkpoints in order to
expel the Caballeros Templarios in the area.
Some 60 trucks,
filled with autodefensas from the
municipalities of Aquila, Cohayuana, Chinicuila and Coalcomán took off to clean
the coast. Within two weeks, they had
already fulfilled their mission. They
checked village by village, house by house, hill by hill, but found no one; the
Templarios had already escaped. While
this advancement was occurring, checkpoints were placed along the road: El
Duin, Cachán, Tizupan, Huahua and finally, on February 24, Caleta de Campo,
establishing the autodefensa border
with territory not yet liberated, about 70 kilometers from the port of Lázaro
Cárdenas.
Gabriel had
acquired sufficient experience during the operations of the coast and as well
as being a native of Caleta; he was elected as the coordinator of the
barricade. “When we arrived, people felt
kind of scared, but then they saw that I liberated Caleta and said; oh, well he’s ‘El
Plátano’. By the time we arrived, we
gathered about 400 people, then we made the assembly and the people began to
rise up in arms, they saw that we were people from Caleta, all of the people
support us”.
The barricade of
Caleta de Campo can’t survive without the support of the people. The kitchen we have that feeds the volunteers
is supplied by donations from the community, “without them, without the support
of the people, we wouldn’t exist,” says “El Plátano”. In its borderline condition, the roadblock hasn’t
been without its tense moments. “Who is
helping here is the Federal Police; they arrived and set up within a few days. Who we distrust is the Mexican Navy; they
have come here repeatedly and tried to disarm us, if we didn’t ring the bells,
they would disarm us. We have the people
on our side; they came out and defended us in front of the Navy. They couldn’t mess with us”.
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| Courtesy of Tejemedios |
Coastal Communities Report Links between “Papa Smurf” And the Caballeros
Templarios
