Chivis Martínez for Borderland Beat
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CT Usurps Identity of Autodefense Groups-Cloning Vehicles and Shirts. Dr. Mireles openly addresses rumors perpetrated by Templarios.
Translation is of Video at the bottom of this post
Dr. Mireles, good afternoon, thanks again for giving us this interview. Rumors have been circulation on social networks where is said that the auto defense groups have decided to take the municipality of Apatzingán. Is this true Dr. Mireles?
Well, I just want to send a message to all the civilians of Apatzingán that we, the auto defense groups, have never thought in taking over the city. That is the truth. We say this because we have discovered fifteen trucks with the same logo as ours in La Loma de los Hoyos and other ranches with people that are wearing shirts identical to the ones we wear.
I want to tell the citizens of Apatzingán that those people don’t belong to our group. They are the Caballeros Templarios who were planning to invade Apatzingán, and kill many people in the march so that the auto defense groups would be blamed for it. We have never planned in taking the city of Apatzingán.
We have been in the lookout for when the citizens of Apatzingán decide in unison, to rise in arms and eradicate organized crime that is nesting in their city. So probably we will go assist the civilians along with the army and the federal forces, when they decide to rise in arms but we have never planned to go and attack the city of Apatzingán. On the contrary, we only defend our borders from organized crime, so they won’t return to our land, since the first day which was February 24th of this year.
Pricilla, we have done this for almost 7 months and we have never invaded a municipality or any ranch that is living peacefully but when the citizens of Apatzingán unite their desires and rise in arms against organized crime, that is when we will go to assist them, if they ask us to do so and I repeat, we will not go alone, the Mexican army will also support us as well as the federal forces; but that will only happen the day that the citizens of Apatzingán by the sum their wills rise in arms to definitely eradicate organized crime.
Dr. Mireles, since when have you been having this information about the Knights Templar who are usurping community police and want to enter the municipality of Apatzingán?
For greater than two weeks we have heard these reports, also the army and the federals know there are several trucks cloned exactly as the army, national marines and as the federal forces.
We know that yesterday the mega march that was meant to take place was cancelled. People were hired to strengthen the march from Zamora, Morelia and Zitacuaro. These people were offered 200 people to assist the march and if the people wouldn’t come, they would be fined with 200 pesos. This is general information that is given to us by people that hear it from families or friends of the Knights Templar.
We were very concerned since the day before yesterday about the concentration of at least 30 trucks that were using the logo of the auto defense groups and the people wearing shirts saying: “For a free Tepalcatepec”, “For a free Buenavista or a free Ruana, were all Knights Templar. (posing as autodefensa)
All of these impostors were going to commit a massacre among all the people that were paid to march and then blame us for that situation. I repeat, we never crossed our municipality to invade another municipality, ever! We are exclusively watching the territory of our municipality. When are we going to Apatzingán?
The day that citizens unite their will and rise in arms against organized crime and will want to eradicated completely. But we will not support those that have personal agendas with organized crime, those that were collaborators of these people and then turned their backs on them because they only have internal issues with them (criminals). We do not participate in those movements, Priscilla.
The day that citizens unite their will and rise in arms against organized crime and will want to eradicated completely. But we will not support those that have personal agendas with organized crime, those that were collaborators of these people and then turned their backs on them because they only have internal issues with them (criminals). We do not participate in those movements, Priscilla.
The march that you are talking about, when was it going to take place, Dr. Mireles, or when is it going to take place?
It was going to take place yesterday at 9 am but because of the tropical storm “Manuel” that has caused damages to the region; the march did not take place. I hope that they will forget about it and not (as planned) make that march with the hired people to destabilize the region more than it is. We don’t do things like that, we just defend our borders.
So, what you are informing us Dr. Mireles, is that the Knights Templar was planning to commit a massacre, usurping the identity of the auto defense groups that are present in the region?
Exactly and that was what we were concerned about but fortunately it did not take place because of the tropical storm “Manuel” but hopefully the people desist of participating in it and if they are forced to do so, they have the right to yell, ask for help, speak to the authorities that they are being forced to a narco protest in which they don’t want to participate, since they also have the risk to be killed by the Knights Templar and blame it on us.
We are not going to leave here, we have said that before. We are not going to invade any city. We will support any city that want to rise in arms and ask for our support but we will not go alone, federal forces and militaries will lead us. We will only go to support citizens but will never go and attack any city, nevertheless, if they don’t want to defend themselves from anything.
Dr. Mireles, what about the rumors about the people of organized crime infiltrated in the auto defense groups?
Well, we have rumors that the people are turning their backs to organized crime. Those that were Zetas that became Familia Michoacana and then Templarios. We know that there is an internal division between the high heads of the mafia that exist in Michoacán and many of them have tried to ask for support to exit the organization, supposedly, but then they will infiltrate into the auto defense groups with the argument that they ended very bad with Quique Plancarte, La Tuta or El Chayo.
We do not believe all of those people because they are criminals, murderers, drug traffickers, kidnappers, executers of many of the families that don’t exist anymore in our region.
We will be constantly vigilant with those that supposedly regret being with the organized crime and want to return to our community but we know that their only intention is to come, re-accommodate in the municipalities which they lead before, then they will try to execute us one by one. That is why we are vigilant and constantly communicating with the companion Hipolito Mora of La Ruana, the companions of Buenavista, Coalcoman, Aguililla and Chinicuila because we do not believe in repentance of the criminals.
They never regretted when they had our brothers, cousins, or relatives kneeled down, tied from feet and hands and shooting them at the back of their head. We will continue watching closely, so infiltrators don’t return and if someone from our municipality or any other municipality want to give forgiveness, I will clear them out. This municipality that rose in arms since February 24th will never forgive anything that the criminals did and will not accept them back into this municipality, NEVER.
Dr. Mireles, many people are questioning why don’t you denounce with the authorities or turn them in, if you already have identified the alleged repentant members of the organized crime?
The day that we catch them, if they decide to come to this municipality, we will turn them in. There are many of them; I just know their nicknames: La Goya, El Güero, El Pollo and El Orejon are the ones that have come here. ...continued on next page
That is what I have heard because we have never seen any of them but we have heard that they have gone to Buenavista, La Ruana and even one of them have come to Tepalcatepec to seek for compassion and forgiveness of some of our general coordinators but the word of a general coordinator will lose its value, if they forgive any of these people because the people have the right to defend themselves, expel them or even execute them for all the massacres the criminals made before.
We have the names and all that information is known by the federal government and the army. All they have to do is detain them when they appear. The criminals can have our shirts, our logos but the town perfectly identifies them and if they are seen here, the town will detain them and expel them, Priscilla.
Dr. Mireles, and how is the situation recently since the last time that you gave us an interview?
Well, since that time until now, I have been guarding continuously for four days because every day the criminals came shot for a while and then left, throw grenades and left.
So we are still in the same condition, of attempted attacks every day. Now that we have been supporting 300 families that were forced to evacuate their homes because of the flooding caused by the tropical storm, we are working 24 hours without stopping.
We have been insisting our companions not abandon their borders and that way the people can work on rescuing the families. I want to highlight the posture of the army during this emergency situation; they immediately put on their emergency plan tags on their shoulders and since 4 am helped us rescue the 300 families of the colonies that were near the river. So that is what we have been doing since yesterday, I cannot say that the situation is controlled but we are watching.
There is a bridge, a highway, which heads to Jalisco, the reinforcement of the cement is weakening and that is the only concern we have, since that eliminates the communication with the city of Tecalitlán, which is where we are sending our ill and injured people. The road collapsed completely in three parts and a man, owner of a mine, Miguel Angel Del Toro, is doing us the favor of offering all of his machinery to try to solve the situation of lack of communication caused by this rain.
Dr. Mireles, have the government of the state send help during this storm situation you are living in?
Absolutely nothing, Priscilla, we don’t exist for them and we don’t count. Probably they (politicians) would come to see us during elections but not when we need from them. We don’t count to the state and that is a disgrace because when it’s election time they come knocking to our doors but when there are emergency situations as serious as this one, we are forgotten. They are very comfortable in their offices, wearing their suits, having air conditioning.
They don’t suffer from floods of this kind, that is so great, let’s hope that all of their families are in peace, but some day justice will play its part and hopefully they will never be in the situation we are in so they won’t see what it is to find itself in a real necessity.
Dr. Mireles, is the only support you have is from the military and the federal police?
Yes, only from them. They are the ones supporting us. I made a marathon of 15 hours working. I was going from one end of the lake to the end of the lower colony of the town but we have not backed down and it is remarkable how the citizens moved to help. It is wonderful to see our poor people working hard and making chains to get kids out of their houses or to take things out of the house that were under water, Priscilla.
The army was in charge of the most dangerous communities which was the tamarind zone and were more than 500 homes and the army did not backed down.
Thank you Dr. Mireles for giving us this interview, is there something else you want to add?
Well, just keep asking the national and international community to continue supporting us. It is important to us that people don’t stop looking this way, to not stop looking the social movement we have created. We are working without the support of the state government which is not interested in our municipalities that have risen in arms and have us, totally abandoned. Everything we have done has been with the effort of all the citizens of our municipality: Tepalcatepec, La Ruana, Buenavista, Aguililla, Chinicuila and Villa Victoria.
It is important that public opinion, our people of United States; do not abandon us, because they are the only ones that as for now have given us all the support, some of them have given us moral support, others have given financial support according to their possibilities. Do not abandon us, we are not going to stop fighting but we need our people, wherever they hear this message, to keep supporting us.