Attemps to reconcile "Americano" and "Hipolito" La Ruana groups fails

La Ruana, Michoacán -
The gathering takes place with 20 insults and 5 death threats each minute. On  one side of the plaza, adjacent to the bandstand, stand  Hipólito Mora’s people. On the other side, the followers of Luis Manuel Torres, aka "El Americano". In between both groups, no one, because the Federal Police "took a hike", as they say around here, as soon as the conflict began.

It’s after six in the afternoon. At 1p.m. there was another meeting that ended up with a small march to on of Torres' community roadblocks. Mora’s followers hoped to run them out of town. There was yelling, pushing and hitting. Mora’s followers, now headed by his brother Guadalupe, say that H3, the letter and number that identify the patrol cars used by Torres’s army, fired into the air and "the ground, near our feet", according to one the most daring ladies.

The problem is well known: mid-March, the self-defense groups of El Americano besieged those of Hipólito Mora, which were greatly outnumbered in people and arms, to arrest the founder of the self-defense groups and two of his men, who were accused of shooting and then burning Rafael Sanchez Moreno, El Pollo, and Jose Luis Torres Castaneda, the first one a reformed (ex-Templar converted into self-defense group member).

The siege lasted three days. On the second day, Mora was taken out by the government and later jailed, accused of being the intellectual author of the crimes. As the days went on, more accusations were added.

The local priest, Jose Luis Segura, says that since then things are worse than when the Templars were around, but the description is not exact: it’s hard to imagine during that time people would’ve had the courage to go out, as they do today, to demand that El Americano’s people leave town.

We have to say, it’s not everyone. The town is clearly divided. "Murderers!", Mora’s followers shout.

"Thieves!", answer El Americano’s people.

And who gave them permission?

La Jornada arrives around three thirty, when the initial commotion ends. A couple of men sitting under the shade dare to talk. All of a sudden, one of Torres’s men interrupts: "What are you writing there?", he asks, and snatches the notebook. He tries to read the scrawling writing. He makes out something one of the men just said about the government: "Hipolito was set up." It’s proof enough to take the reporter to El Americano.

The reporters are surrounded by about thirty armed men. Torres reviews the notebook. He stumbles on the writing. "What does it say here?", he asks several times. He says he doesn’t remember an interview done in January. Around him, several men complain and threaten. "Don't say anything more that’s good for Hipolito. They lie!"

After an exchange that seems to last forever, and with one simple look, he authorizes the journalists to be present. He even authorizes photographs of the assembly. Since he’s a man of few words, prior to the explanations El Americano had said: "And who gave you permission? Leave."

Four young men on motor scooters follow the reporters everywhere they go while they wait for the assembly to begin.

The point of the meeting is to decide if El Americano and his men should continue watching over the town and name a council that would theoretically have control over the self-defense groups. An important fact: there are no guns in sight.

The first one to speak, Guadalupe Mora asks that his people be placed on one side and his opponent’s on the other. And the shouting starts. They accuse him of dividing.

The deputy mayor, Ramon Contreras, adds his voice to Mora’s petition. He says this way the votes will be counted. "The one that wins, wins," he says.

The next one to speak is a courageous woman, whom some identify as El Pollo’s sister: "Who has the moral quality to decide who can live in this town and who can’t?" She also asks that no one on the council should have a heart full of rancor. She gets an ovation, but only naturally from the side of El Americano, who only shows up after the assembly has been going on for a while.

A follower of Torres speaks next and says: "If we are not wanted, we’ll leave. We won’t fight. We only need the town’s decision."

"Shut up, asshole!", someone shouts.

The speakers at the microphone are accompanied by shouts for sanity, insults, dead threats and even some punches between the biggest hotheads.

"The one that did harm needs to show his face," says an old man.

A pregnant woman in a miniskirt challenges those that went to her home and tried to throw her out to show their faces.

A chubby guy shouts his accusations against a "repentant" Knights Templar: "You killed him!" His father, on the bandstand with the accused, pleads: "Don’t kill him for that, please don’t kill him!"

A young man looks Hipóolito’s brother in the eye and says: "Lupe Mora is responsible for whatever happens to me or my family!"

A rotund woman accuses Hipólito of jailing her husband, accusing him of "stealing  " and using drugs: and "if he uses drugs, so what, if he buys drugs with his own money."

"Hipólito put me in jail because I refused to kill a guy, but I’m not a murderer," says an old, toothless, man.

The deputy mayor, who on February 24 still worked for Hipólito, wants to stop the discussion: "Are we going to do it or not? Hey, separate your people on this side," he tells Guadalupe Mora.

A space that looks more like an abyss starts opening up. It looks like Mora’s people are the majority, but the voting doesn’t take place because some demand there be ballot boxes.

Also, aside from the deputy mayor, the only authority present is Mayor Luis Torres, recently reinstated in his post thanks to an agreement with El Americano.


He takes the microphone and wants to be a mediator, but he can’t stand the shouts of "get out, get out!" He ends his small speech with: "11 thousand people voted for me, a group of 100 can’t tell me to leave," he says, stops talking and goes to the back row.

The government declared war on him

A speaker, older and short in stature, goes straight to the point: “We don’t want any Americanos here!”

"Cabron you live in McAllen [Texas], you don’t even know what’s going on in La Ruana," they yell back.

That’s when Luis Manuel Torres [El Americano] shows up, wearing a Lacoste 1927 cap and white sandals: "I’m from La Ruana and no one will make me leave."

He speaks little, but goes straight to the point: he says he knows they are going to do to him "the same thing that they did to Hipólito". And he says: "the law is useless."

El Americano and Lupe Mora try to reach an agreement. A repentant with Bvlgari glasses seems to be Torres’s consultant and proposes the creation of a council made up of people from both sides. They try to negotiate, but can’t reach an agreement, while the shouting continues below.

Let’s go, there is nothing to do here, says Lupe.

“Americano, Americano, Americano!”, shouts a group of women.

 Torres speaks again: "I’m going to keep watching, and if they sick the government on me, do it, let it come to try to disarm me and I will declare war against it."