El País (2-4-2014) By Paula Chouza Candeira
"I dreamed once that I had all three in front of me: La Tuta, Enrique Plancarte and "El Chayo". In that dream I scolded each of them. "...Dr Mireles
Translated by un vato for Borderland Beat
Jose Manuel Mireles, moral leader of the groups of armed civilians fighting against drug traffickers in the Mexican state of Michoacan, characterizes the accord to legalize the self defense forces as "theater".
Wearing a grey jacket and a dark T-shirt, this surgeon who decided to revolt eleven months ago against the abuses of organized crime asks that his X-ray pictures be brought out to show his wounds. The location of the moral leader of the self defense forces is secret, his public statements, scarce.
"What I want right now, is to recover", he repeats this several times during the interview that takes place Sunday morning. Although he states that he is currently cut off from the movement, he considers the accord between the governments and the community guards to legalize them to be a "theater", he appears skeptical regarding the arrests announced by the Executive (administration) and criticizes the media propaganda that the authorities are staging over the conflict in Michoacán.
The doctor is recovering his mobility, his spirit, his appetite. His ideas are intact. Faced with the escalation of violence, this past January 13 the Pena Nieto government and the State Executive signed an agreement to use security forces to intervene in the violent Tierra Caliente (Hot Country) region.
Question: The Army has been deployed in the area for several months, but you have always accused them of doing nothing. Do you think there has been a change in strategy?
Answer: At least there is the intention, from the moment that the Federal government and the State announced that they will take charge of the situation, which is what we had been looking for since the time that we took up arms in February. But during that time, the State Executive, instead of helping us, was the entity that threw more rocks at us, they attacked us the most. In fact, they attacked us more than did the Templarios.
Now, what we are looking forward to is for them to do their job. They already started, they announced two arrests, but we still have not physically seen the arrest of "El Toro", the first one arrested(no proof). He was the plaza boss in Tepalcatepec, the principal rapist. He would rape four or five women from the same household and nobody would stop him.
Q: So you don't really trust that they have arrested him?
A: Exactly. We've had very bad experiences under previous (government) administrations. We're from over there, we know the criminals and the traffickers and we would see how the previous government would grab any drunk pissing in his garden and would show him off as the "king of meth."
"We arrested the King of Marijuana, we arrested the King of Cocaine". They may be able to fool the people who don't live there. Maybe they made all those announcements for people who love the circus, but not for those of us who are suffering the problems in person.
That does not convince us. If they tell us that they have arrested "El Toro", we say: "Okay, show him to me, I want to see him, I know him very well". They came to show him to me in photographs. But we're asking them to prove it, including with the use of DNA (testing), because they come back to life.
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And every time that they come back to life, it's the Government showing its scorn for the public, because, how is it possible for the Army to announce that they killed "Tio Nicho" -- the third ranking Templario -- in a road block because he wouldn't stop, and six months later he comes back to life and challenges Hipolito Mora -- leader of the La Ruana self defense forces -- to a duel?
Two years ago, the Federals supposedly killed Nazario Moreno, "El Chayo" [Leader of the cartel. The official version says he's dead, but the self defense forces assert that he is still alive and operating in the area].
Q: Do you know where [El Chayo] is?
A: We've always known and we've always told them where he is.
Q: And today, they still haven't gone for him?
A: At this moment, I am out of touch with all of the movement. But I still have three weeks of intermediate therapy that I would like to complete, because we are not going to stop until they fall. We can't be at peace anywhere until they fall. Because we have already confronted them, and while they are still alive, even under arrest, there are prisons where they will live better than they do at home and they can order people killed.
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Q: What do you think about the attack on the Jalisco Nueva Generacion cartel?
A: Maybe the state of Jalisco is also doing its job. All the states in the Republic (of Mexico) have this problem. I don't know of a single state that doesn't have (this problem). I've been contacted from three (states) to ask me what it is that they need. The only answer I give them is: rage. I feel that if I run out of rage, I will run out of courage. But it's a rage that I've carried for several years.
Q: How would you describe that feeling, where does it come from?
A: From seeing what was happening every day and also from family matters. We had problems with my youngest sister, there were kidnappings in her family, which hit my mother very hard, then she died. From seeing the boys who were born in the house across the street and seeing how they just delivered their heads.
I saw a young boy being kidnapped in Colomotitan; I saw them kidnap a fifteen year old girl as she got out of church...I saw many things and we had to look away because if you stayed to watch, they would kill you, too. We kept our heads down for twelve years.
They killed all members of the Valdovinos family when they no longer wanted to keep on paying the 50,000 pesos ($2,770.00) every month.
Q: They say that you are advising self defense forces from other states.
A: They have called us to ask for advice, that's true. They called me from Zacatecas, Oaxaca and Veracruz. I'm in contact with people from Guerrero, the situation is difficult there, also from Jalisco, but I would first like to see how our own state is cleaned up before I get involved in other states. Our war is not against the Mexican State, not even against the State of Michoacán. The only thing we're looking for is for the rule of law to be reestablished so we can have a peaceful life.
Q: After such a long period of accusing the state government of not doing anything, how do you deal with this new stage under a pact, do you really trust them?
A: No, we do not trust them. Myself least of all. Also, that pact was one we [self defense forces] already had with the Federal government. Yes, we were going to do it, but only after they had arrested the last of the Templarios. So the events overtook us. I learned that they had lobbied every one of the coordinators they took to the meeting, but there was nobody there from the front lines. It's part of an agreement that we had, but it was not yet time because we're not finished yet.
Q: So it's a media agreement?
A: It's political. It has nothing to do with reality. The proof of this is that the following day my companions took over the municipalities of Reyes and Periban, and they will keep going forward.
continues on next page.....
Q: What do you think about (the fact) that there are people who are not going to give up their weapons yet?
A: Nobody is going to give up their weapons. In fact, the agreement is for those who want to continue having weapons to continue to do so under the "defensas rurales" (rural defense forces) organizations. Because the agreement that we had was that they were going to eliminate all the municipal police in all of Michoacán and they were going to call themselves "state police", and that the state police would be made up of all the "autodefensas" and "comunitarios" (communitarian police) who wished to belong to those police agencies.
The state police would be paid a salary. The "defensas rurales" are not paid, it's only to allow them to carry weapons on their ranches and care for their cattle and their property.
That has existed for many, many years, it's nothing new. Personally, I don't like for the Federal government in Michoacán to make use of the social movement in the media. The state needs all of the government's attention to resolve the situation, but not through these little dramas. In Michoacán, we do not need theater to regain peace, we need real action, like the intervention in the Lazaro Cardenas port. We were astonished, because the Federal government showed that it has the capability to resolve the problem [In November, the Army took control of the docks, the main entry point for merchandise from the Pacific (Ocean)].
Q: Is the solution the institutionalization of the "autodefensas"?
A: That can only happen after the state has been cleaned up. It will do no good before that.
Q: You, for example, would you like to become "legalized" or would you rather return to (practicing) medicine?
A: No, I'm going back to my job. I have my work, and of all of us who have our occupations, none of us will be registering "autodefensas" weapons. None of us. In fact, it's a scam on the government by my companions when they go register a little pistol that is not used by the "autodefensas". Both sides are making fun of each other.. There's nothing really formal, it's all theater. Imagine, I have all my weapons registered, but they are hunting weapons, sporting.
Q: You're saying that you will surrender your weapons as soon as they capture the seven leaders of the Templarios. What happens after that?
A: The seven leaders I presented are from my region. "El Chayo", "La Tuta", Plancarte and "El Tio" are the Templario leaders for all of the state, but each region has its own plaza bosses. Each [coordinator] in turn presented the leaders that have to be detained, they are a bunch. Each [coordinator] needs to figure out how any of those who screwed up their town will fall.
Q: And what happens next? Do you surrender your weapons, will there be elections?
A: All of the state is contaminated by organized crime. All of the election was carried out at gunpoint: president, congressional representatives. I am not in favor of suspending government authority in the state of Michoacán because then you would have a social revolution, but we are in favor of the Federal government doing everything needed to clean up all of the state, from the governor's mansion to the municipalities. Elections are coming, and we will be the main people making sure that nobody will vote with a rifle pointed at his head. I will guarantee you this right now.
Q: And who will guarantee that it won't be you all who will point guns at the people when they go vote?
A: We're not in that business. I am not part of the political movement in my city.
Q: So then you don't see yourselves as political actors?
A: No, none of us do.
Q: You don't see yourself as a political leader?
A: No, and I'm not interested. We believe strongly in our institutions. We will step aside in favor of those who are politicians, those who are truly interested in the betterment of the people. But we will be will also be making sure that they will not begin to steal because the people will no longer stand for it.
Q: Then, you're not a politician?
A: Not any more. I was a candidate for senator, for federal congressman, for mayor, but I got into the political party trickery and saw all of it. I'm not interested. [Dr. Mireles admits he was a PRI member for 25 years, and he was Secretary general of the PRD in the U.S. when he lived in California.]
Q: Would you be a good governor for Michoacán?
A: (He sighs.) Remember that the governor of a state is not everything, he needs a good work team. And if a single person in his team doesn't do what he needs to do for the development of the state, he spoils the job for you and for everybody else. Right now I'm not interested.
Q: Right now, I suppose, you're interested in your recovery.
A: Right now all I'm interested in is for them to begin to take out the screws that are bothering me. There are 48, but, to begin with, they're taking out five, and they're going to leave the rest in there. I'm doing intermediate therapy, controlling my vital signs every day, I'm trying to gain weight, I lost more than 44 pounds, my movement.
I don't know how long it will take to recover feeling in my face; I need it to be able to open my eyes. My right side is affected and I can see you with my left eye. I still need three weeks of intermediate therapy and I don't know how long it will take for rehabilitation in my mouth. Half of my teeth are pushed in.
Q: When you return to Tepalcatepec, do you intend to get involved again directly with the movement?
A: We can't go back. It's obligatory, even if I can no longer be in the fighting, as I always liked to be.
Q: Do you want to return to your medical clinic?
A: Yes, I've got four years until retirement.
Q: Aren't you afraid to return and that they will try to kill you?
A: I'm not afraid, but I have to be careful. I'm more afraid of a lone gunman than a group of armed people. A group of armed people is noticeable, a lone stalker is not. I'm afraid of somebody approaching me from whatever side on a motorcycle. Those I'm afraid of, and there are a lot of them, but so long as we are within our zone, we are somewhat safe because the neighbors are guarding the exits and entrances to the town and they don't allow strangers through.
Q: What would you say to all those people who are saying that you are doing the work for the Templarios' rivals?
A: It could be. When we drove the Templarios out of Tepalcatepec, they were in a fight to the death with a cartel from Jalisco that was in Tecalitlan. When we began the movement, our relatives notified us that there was a "manta" (banner with a message) at the entrance to Tecalitlan that read, "Welcome, residents of Tepalcatepec".
I asked a young man, "Why?""That's because you ran off our town's enemies", he told me. Because one December, the Tepalcatepec Templarios went there and shot 60 persons from Tecalitlan as they were leaving mass. So the town hated the Templarios.
A couple of months ago, I asked him how they felt today: "To tell you the truth, we are bored because we no longer have anybody to fight with", he answered.
We're not playing any cartel's game. Tepalcatepec and the state of Michoacán learned their lesson. At first, the town asked "La Familia Michoacana" for help to run off the "Zetas" cartel, then "La Familia" takes over everything, they fight among themselves and the Templarios show up. A lot of people fought the "Zetas", then "La Familia". The inhabitants don't want anything to do with any cartel.
Q: Where do you get your weapons?
A: In every battle that we win, the Templarios leave us their weapons.
Q: And aren't there any infiltrators in the "autodefensas"?
A: We have several groups now. Every municipal occupancy has its own. The only infiltrators they may have are people who may have belonged to a cartel many years before, because we don't allow people identified with criminals to come in. We have that risk and that fear. We get proposals, but we have always said no.
Q: What would you say to La Tuta if you had him in front of you?
A: I dreamed once that I had all three in front of me: La Tuta, Enrique Plancarte and "El Chayo". In that dream I scolded each of them. You, Chayo, you own all of the Sierra Madre Occidental (western mountain range), how many armed men do you have with you? So you don't have any fighting among them, give each of the 100 hectares (240 acres) and give each of your chiefs $10 million and let them put their men to work their ranch. The point men, the lookouts, so they won't steal. You already have money and can go to another country.
They have huge mansions in other places. Leave the people of Michoacán in peace. I told La Tuta: keep the El Faraon mine, which produces $600,000 a week. Just for yourself. Distribute the other mines among your generals and let them put their people to work. There's no need for them to steal, rape or kidnap. I told Plancarte the same thing. One day, I told my friends about (my dream) and we were all laughing.
Q: What truth is there in the stories published in the Mexican press about your sentence for drug trafficking?
A: I was involved with drugs because of a job I had as a federal government official. I was the one who wrote the medical report on drug samples and they took advantage of that fact to come out with that. There was a time when Tepalcatepec was full of drug traffickers. The main ones were the Federal (police) and the military. There was a problem with a family member, I wouldn't do a favor for him and he wrote about me in the newspaper, but I have nothing to do with drug traffickers.
Q: So it's not true that you were in jail?
A: I've been in jail many times. The first time when I was 12 years old. Secondary school students were not allowed to go to a pool hall. The last time was because I had been putting "Dr. Jose Manuel Mireles" on my business cards, which is a business-related violation in California because you have to be licensed by the state and be admitted by a medical board. I spent 90 days in jail.
After more than an hour of conversation, I ask Dr. Mireles if there is something more he wants to add. "I have a lot to say, but right now I can't say much. I want to get well. To all my companions, I say that they should continue with the project that we began, and that we will surrender our weapons when the government of Michoacan is cleaned up and when the government has established the rule of law.
To all the States of the Republic who are rising up in arms against organized crime, I wish you the same success as our own, may you have the support of your governors and of the Federal Executive so you can finish your job soon. And to those of you who are still asleep, Wake up! Open your eyes! It is possible to clean our land of people who are taking over our lives. Find a way to get the Federal and state governments to participate. If you're not able to do that, make your own decisions and go for it".
Answer: At least there is the intention, from the moment that the Federal government and the State announced that they will take charge of the situation, which is what we had been looking for since the time that we took up arms in February. But during that time, the State Executive, instead of helping us, was the entity that threw more rocks at us, they attacked us the most. In fact, they attacked us more than did the Templarios.
Now, what we are looking forward to is for them to do their job. They already started, they announced two arrests, but we still have not physically seen the arrest of "El Toro", the first one arrested(no proof). He was the plaza boss in Tepalcatepec, the principal rapist. He would rape four or five women from the same household and nobody would stop him.
Q: So you don't really trust that they have arrested him?
A: Exactly. We've had very bad experiences under previous (government) administrations. We're from over there, we know the criminals and the traffickers and we would see how the previous government would grab any drunk pissing in his garden and would show him off as the "king of meth."
"We arrested the King of Marijuana, we arrested the King of Cocaine". They may be able to fool the people who don't live there. Maybe they made all those announcements for people who love the circus, but not for those of us who are suffering the problems in person.
That does not convince us. If they tell us that they have arrested "El Toro", we say: "Okay, show him to me, I want to see him, I know him very well". They came to show him to me in photographs. But we're asking them to prove it, including with the use of DNA (testing), because they come back to life.
Two years ago, the Federals supposedly killed Nazario Moreno, "El Chayo" [Leader of the cartel. The official version says he's dead, but the self defense forces assert that he is still alive and operating in the area].
Q: Do you know where [El Chayo] is?
A: We've always known and we've always told them where he is.
Q: And today, they still haven't gone for him?
A: At this moment, I am out of touch with all of the movement. But I still have three weeks of intermediate therapy that I would like to complete, because we are not going to stop until they fall. We can't be at peace anywhere until they fall. Because we have already confronted them, and while they are still alive, even under arrest, there are prisons where they will live better than they do at home and they can order people killed.
A: Maybe the state of Jalisco is also doing its job. All the states in the Republic (of Mexico) have this problem. I don't know of a single state that doesn't have (this problem). I've been contacted from three (states) to ask me what it is that they need. The only answer I give them is: rage. I feel that if I run out of rage, I will run out of courage. But it's a rage that I've carried for several years.
Q: How would you describe that feeling, where does it come from?
A: From seeing what was happening every day and also from family matters. We had problems with my youngest sister, there were kidnappings in her family, which hit my mother very hard, then she died. From seeing the boys who were born in the house across the street and seeing how they just delivered their heads.
I saw a young boy being kidnapped in Colomotitan; I saw them kidnap a fifteen year old girl as she got out of church...I saw many things and we had to look away because if you stayed to watch, they would kill you, too. We kept our heads down for twelve years.
They killed all members of the Valdovinos family when they no longer wanted to keep on paying the 50,000 pesos ($2,770.00) every month.
Q: They say that you are advising self defense forces from other states.
A: They have called us to ask for advice, that's true. They called me from Zacatecas, Oaxaca and Veracruz. I'm in contact with people from Guerrero, the situation is difficult there, also from Jalisco, but I would first like to see how our own state is cleaned up before I get involved in other states. Our war is not against the Mexican State, not even against the State of Michoacán. The only thing we're looking for is for the rule of law to be reestablished so we can have a peaceful life.
Q: After such a long period of accusing the state government of not doing anything, how do you deal with this new stage under a pact, do you really trust them?
A: No, we do not trust them. Myself least of all. Also, that pact was one we [self defense forces] already had with the Federal government. Yes, we were going to do it, but only after they had arrested the last of the Templarios. So the events overtook us. I learned that they had lobbied every one of the coordinators they took to the meeting, but there was nobody there from the front lines. It's part of an agreement that we had, but it was not yet time because we're not finished yet.
Q: So it's a media agreement?
A: It's political. It has nothing to do with reality. The proof of this is that the following day my companions took over the municipalities of Reyes and Periban, and they will keep going forward.
continues on next page.....
Q: What do you think about (the fact) that there are people who are not going to give up their weapons yet?
A: Nobody is going to give up their weapons. In fact, the agreement is for those who want to continue having weapons to continue to do so under the "defensas rurales" (rural defense forces) organizations. Because the agreement that we had was that they were going to eliminate all the municipal police in all of Michoacán and they were going to call themselves "state police", and that the state police would be made up of all the "autodefensas" and "comunitarios" (communitarian police) who wished to belong to those police agencies.
The state police would be paid a salary. The "defensas rurales" are not paid, it's only to allow them to carry weapons on their ranches and care for their cattle and their property.
That has existed for many, many years, it's nothing new. Personally, I don't like for the Federal government in Michoacán to make use of the social movement in the media. The state needs all of the government's attention to resolve the situation, but not through these little dramas. In Michoacán, we do not need theater to regain peace, we need real action, like the intervention in the Lazaro Cardenas port. We were astonished, because the Federal government showed that it has the capability to resolve the problem [In November, the Army took control of the docks, the main entry point for merchandise from the Pacific (Ocean)].
Q: Is the solution the institutionalization of the "autodefensas"?
A: That can only happen after the state has been cleaned up. It will do no good before that.
Q: You, for example, would you like to become "legalized" or would you rather return to (practicing) medicine?
A: No, I'm going back to my job. I have my work, and of all of us who have our occupations, none of us will be registering "autodefensas" weapons. None of us. In fact, it's a scam on the government by my companions when they go register a little pistol that is not used by the "autodefensas". Both sides are making fun of each other.. There's nothing really formal, it's all theater. Imagine, I have all my weapons registered, but they are hunting weapons, sporting.
Q: You're saying that you will surrender your weapons as soon as they capture the seven leaders of the Templarios. What happens after that?
A: The seven leaders I presented are from my region. "El Chayo", "La Tuta", Plancarte and "El Tio" are the Templario leaders for all of the state, but each region has its own plaza bosses. Each [coordinator] in turn presented the leaders that have to be detained, they are a bunch. Each [coordinator] needs to figure out how any of those who screwed up their town will fall.
Q: And what happens next? Do you surrender your weapons, will there be elections?
A: All of the state is contaminated by organized crime. All of the election was carried out at gunpoint: president, congressional representatives. I am not in favor of suspending government authority in the state of Michoacán because then you would have a social revolution, but we are in favor of the Federal government doing everything needed to clean up all of the state, from the governor's mansion to the municipalities. Elections are coming, and we will be the main people making sure that nobody will vote with a rifle pointed at his head. I will guarantee you this right now.
Q: And who will guarantee that it won't be you all who will point guns at the people when they go vote?
A: We're not in that business. I am not part of the political movement in my city.
Q: So then you don't see yourselves as political actors?
A: No, none of us do.
Q: You don't see yourself as a political leader?
A: No, and I'm not interested. We believe strongly in our institutions. We will step aside in favor of those who are politicians, those who are truly interested in the betterment of the people. But we will be will also be making sure that they will not begin to steal because the people will no longer stand for it.
Q: Then, you're not a politician?
A: Not any more. I was a candidate for senator, for federal congressman, for mayor, but I got into the political party trickery and saw all of it. I'm not interested. [Dr. Mireles admits he was a PRI member for 25 years, and he was Secretary general of the PRD in the U.S. when he lived in California.]
Q: Would you be a good governor for Michoacán?
A: (He sighs.) Remember that the governor of a state is not everything, he needs a good work team. And if a single person in his team doesn't do what he needs to do for the development of the state, he spoils the job for you and for everybody else. Right now I'm not interested.
Q: Right now, I suppose, you're interested in your recovery.
A: Right now all I'm interested in is for them to begin to take out the screws that are bothering me. There are 48, but, to begin with, they're taking out five, and they're going to leave the rest in there. I'm doing intermediate therapy, controlling my vital signs every day, I'm trying to gain weight, I lost more than 44 pounds, my movement.
I don't know how long it will take to recover feeling in my face; I need it to be able to open my eyes. My right side is affected and I can see you with my left eye. I still need three weeks of intermediate therapy and I don't know how long it will take for rehabilitation in my mouth. Half of my teeth are pushed in.
Q: When you return to Tepalcatepec, do you intend to get involved again directly with the movement?
A: We can't go back. It's obligatory, even if I can no longer be in the fighting, as I always liked to be.
Q: Do you want to return to your medical clinic?
A: Yes, I've got four years until retirement.
Q: Aren't you afraid to return and that they will try to kill you?
A: I'm not afraid, but I have to be careful. I'm more afraid of a lone gunman than a group of armed people. A group of armed people is noticeable, a lone stalker is not. I'm afraid of somebody approaching me from whatever side on a motorcycle. Those I'm afraid of, and there are a lot of them, but so long as we are within our zone, we are somewhat safe because the neighbors are guarding the exits and entrances to the town and they don't allow strangers through.
Q: What would you say to all those people who are saying that you are doing the work for the Templarios' rivals?
A: It could be. When we drove the Templarios out of Tepalcatepec, they were in a fight to the death with a cartel from Jalisco that was in Tecalitlan. When we began the movement, our relatives notified us that there was a "manta" (banner with a message) at the entrance to Tecalitlan that read, "Welcome, residents of Tepalcatepec".
I asked a young man, "Why?""That's because you ran off our town's enemies", he told me. Because one December, the Tepalcatepec Templarios went there and shot 60 persons from Tecalitlan as they were leaving mass. So the town hated the Templarios.
A couple of months ago, I asked him how they felt today: "To tell you the truth, we are bored because we no longer have anybody to fight with", he answered.
We're not playing any cartel's game. Tepalcatepec and the state of Michoacán learned their lesson. At first, the town asked "La Familia Michoacana" for help to run off the "Zetas" cartel, then "La Familia" takes over everything, they fight among themselves and the Templarios show up. A lot of people fought the "Zetas", then "La Familia". The inhabitants don't want anything to do with any cartel.
Q: Where do you get your weapons?
A: In every battle that we win, the Templarios leave us their weapons.
Q: And aren't there any infiltrators in the "autodefensas"?
A: We have several groups now. Every municipal occupancy has its own. The only infiltrators they may have are people who may have belonged to a cartel many years before, because we don't allow people identified with criminals to come in. We have that risk and that fear. We get proposals, but we have always said no.
Q: What would you say to La Tuta if you had him in front of you?
A: I dreamed once that I had all three in front of me: La Tuta, Enrique Plancarte and "El Chayo". In that dream I scolded each of them. You, Chayo, you own all of the Sierra Madre Occidental (western mountain range), how many armed men do you have with you? So you don't have any fighting among them, give each of the 100 hectares (240 acres) and give each of your chiefs $10 million and let them put their men to work their ranch. The point men, the lookouts, so they won't steal. You already have money and can go to another country.
They have huge mansions in other places. Leave the people of Michoacán in peace. I told La Tuta: keep the El Faraon mine, which produces $600,000 a week. Just for yourself. Distribute the other mines among your generals and let them put their people to work. There's no need for them to steal, rape or kidnap. I told Plancarte the same thing. One day, I told my friends about (my dream) and we were all laughing.
Q: What truth is there in the stories published in the Mexican press about your sentence for drug trafficking?
A: I was involved with drugs because of a job I had as a federal government official. I was the one who wrote the medical report on drug samples and they took advantage of that fact to come out with that. There was a time when Tepalcatepec was full of drug traffickers. The main ones were the Federal (police) and the military. There was a problem with a family member, I wouldn't do a favor for him and he wrote about me in the newspaper, but I have nothing to do with drug traffickers.
Q: So it's not true that you were in jail?
A: I've been in jail many times. The first time when I was 12 years old. Secondary school students were not allowed to go to a pool hall. The last time was because I had been putting "Dr. Jose Manuel Mireles" on my business cards, which is a business-related violation in California because you have to be licensed by the state and be admitted by a medical board. I spent 90 days in jail.
After more than an hour of conversation, I ask Dr. Mireles if there is something more he wants to add. "I have a lot to say, but right now I can't say much. I want to get well. To all my companions, I say that they should continue with the project that we began, and that we will surrender our weapons when the government of Michoacan is cleaned up and when the government has established the rule of law.
To all the States of the Republic who are rising up in arms against organized crime, I wish you the same success as our own, may you have the support of your governors and of the Federal Executive so you can finish your job soon. And to those of you who are still asleep, Wake up! Open your eyes! It is possible to clean our land of people who are taking over our lives. Find a way to get the Federal and state governments to participate. If you're not able to do that, make your own decisions and go for it".