By Chivis Martinez for Borderland Beat-with info provided by Pepe
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A Rurales commander who gave an interview to the press saying Michoacán was better off with autodefensas, has been killed.
Yesterday the commander of Coalcomán Rural Township, Felipe Ávila Díaz died. He had been shot last Friday morning and then transferred to Civil Hospital of Morelia. He succumbed to internal injuries caused by multiple gunshot wounds.
On 17 October, the police arrived at a sawmill located one kilometer Coalcomán, where he was taken after being abducted by armed men in a van. He was discovered where kidnappers discarded, what they must have thought was a dead body, near the sawmill.
Although he was shot repeatedly, only one wound, that in the abdominal area, proved to be the fatal injury.
Although he was shot repeatedly, only one wound, that in the abdominal area, proved to be the fatal injury.
Díaz Ávila candidly spoke out against the Fuerza Rurales on September 27th;
“We were more effective and better as autodefensas, than Fuerza Rurales.”
“We were more effective and better as autodefensas, than Fuerza Rurales.”
Díaz,once a leader in the autodefensas movement of Michoacán, became the Coalcomán commander of the federally created, Fuerza Rural, hoping that working with the government would create a stronger security for the state.
The commander said they are now constrained of any movement or operation that as autodefensas, they previously implemented in the Sierras. Now, he said, they have to notify the government and await approval to move, more often than not the requests go unanswered. He said the conditions they are left to work in are deplorable.
As autodefensas, their operations were very successful because they knew the treacherous mountain landscape, and their reconnaissance were of a surprise with few being aware of the pending operation.
“When we were autodefensas operatives, we were implementing the element of surprise”
Diaz, went on to say that the government quickly abandon them. The same complaint heard throughout Michoacán with respect to the government backed Rurales program.
Like others who have spoken of lack of support, Díaz said, the government only appeared to take photo ops, depicting the issuing of weapons and uniforms and vehicles, then vanished. He said they were given only 2 vehicles, few weapons, no funds, no gas, and were never trained by SSP as Alfredo Castillo touted would be done.
He reported that both the vehicles the government had provided to the city had been taken by organized crime.
Some rurales have openly returned to the autodefensas movement, which never was completely disbanded. In fact, the coastal AD, once led by Dr. Mireles, has never disbanded and have been openly operating all along.
Reasonable people can only conclude that the installation of the Fuerza Rural, was in fact an operation with an objective not to secure Michoacán, but rather to disrupt the autodefensa movement.
Michoacán social media users are expressing their anger, which is being directed at one person, EPN appointed Commissioner Alfredo Castillo, writing phrases such as “Biggest criminal of Michoacán, AFREDO CASTILLO”, “ and “No. 1 enemies to Michoacán Alfredo Castillo and Enrique Peña Nieto”, leaving no doubt who some hold responsible for the murder and heighten violence
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