Tijuano for Borderland Beat
Hipolito Mora (leader of La Ruana´s Communitarian Police) responded to the video released by alleged Knights Templar leader Dionisio Loya Plancarte. In an interview with journalist Luis Cardenas of MVS Radio, Hipolito Mora said, among other things, he finds Dionisio Loya funny.
The following is a transcription of the interview conducted today:
I want to thank Hipolito Mora, leader of the self-defense group in La Ruana for answering this call.
LC: Mr. Hipolito, good evening, how are you?
HM: Fine Sir, how are you?
LC: Fine, tell us, have you seen the video? Have you heard what “El Tio” from Knights Templar told you?
HM: Yes I have
LC: What do you think about it?
HM: Well, I have no problems with him! Ha hasn´t offended me, he has not hurt me, I have no anger towards him. I think I don´t have to dialogue with him because I don´t know him and I have never done business with him. I don´t have to duel with him because I have no problems with him. If he´s got problems with me, well I don´t know.
LC: It appears El Tio has problems with you…
HM: Well, yes he does but I don´t. If he wants to have a shootout with me, then maybe he has his reasons, but I don´t, that´s why I announce publicly I´m not going to accept his invitation because I don´t have problems with him, I only set free my town and my people from them, they had them scared, they killed people when
ever they wanted, they arrived at midnight scaring people without caring for the wives and children suffering, they just took them and killed them and we never knew about them anymore.
LC: How was La Ruana before you arrived with the self-defense groups? What did the Knights Templar did to you?
HM: The charged taxes on everything, they forced people to close their businesses anytime they wanted because they were going to sell in the only garden we have, they came to sell beer, wine and everything. They had the lemon controlled, the owners of the packing factories had to pay them a tax as they call it, the owners of the packing factories could not choose who they hired or from who they bought lemon, they were the ones taking the decisions. The worst is they told them who to buy from, someone from them arrived with three thousand boxes and they bought it right away, some poor farmer arrived with twenty and they had to tell them they were full, they had no space for them but at the same moment they were buying two thousand boxes from them (Knights Templar) and they had us fucked.
LC: How much did they tax those who could even pay?
HM: About 1.5 pesos for kilo to all those who could even deliver lemon, besides that every truck had to pay 500 pesos to them; it was a lot of things they did to us. That´s the problem “El Tio” has with me.
LC: What did they do to you? At which moment did you say that´s enough?
HM: I used to sell 20-30 boxes of lemon and they told me they were full so I became fed up and said to myself “I got to do something, I got to do something for my people, the poor people” because, honestly, those involved in these movement are mostly poor, there are no rich people here, only poor people, those who suffered the most.
LC: What did you do? How did you convince them to fight the Knights Templar? How did you take them out?
HM: It was very hard for me, I talked with many people, I invited them to do something but they all said no, they were afraid, then I found 3 or 4 as crazy as I am and I told them “Hey, do we do this?” and they said “yes”, so I told them “we have to invite the townspeople to the garden, and when they are there we step up and ask them to fight for their rights”, they said “ok, let´s do it”. When we had to step up, most of them cowered and I had to step up with what little I had, they were scared. One boy who used to work with me, and a construction man, and one other man stepped up with me, they stepped up with me.
LC: So the townspeople didn´t back you up?
HM: If nobody backed me up back then, I´ll already be death, luckily the town was tired. I stepped in front of them, I was masked, the only time I used one, and asked for those who wanted to fight for their rights, and their response amazed me.
LC: You are armed right?
HM: Yes, an old shotgun, by the way it was stolen from me, I had about 30 years with it.
LC: So you have no weapons now?
HM: We do, we have lots of them, but I started with that old shotgun and I lost it here in the movement.
LC: And how do you get those weapons?
HM: With the help of people who is tired of these, they cooperate buying them for us, some other we took from the Knights Templar, when they left town after the protest march we got into their homes and took them. That´s how we have acquired them, the citizens help us with that.
LC: Dionisio Loya Plancarte claims you are part of Cartel Jalisco New Generation, is that true?
HM: Nobody believes him, nobody believes him. Society knows they have to use everything at their disposal to discredit us. They want to make us look bad in front of the Government, society and the media, but people know who they are, the people can´t be misled, the people is old, even kids know that.
LC: Do food or help trucks arrive at La Ruana?
HM: No, we have no gas, we have no fuel, we have no food, and every day becomes is harder on us
LC: Not even the doctors who vaccinate the kids are allowed there, right?
HM: No, Oportunidades(Federal Government Social Assistance Program) won´t come here, they want us to go to Apatzingan, but they don´t let us inside Apatzingan, they(Knights Templar) have checkpoints in Apatzingan and nobody tells them anything, they take people´s IDs and if they are from Carrillo Puerto they take them away and we never know from them again. So, how do we go to Apatzingan?
LC: So you are besieged? Nobody can get in or out of there?
HM: Exactly, we can´t get out of here, if we get sick we have to help ourselves, we can´t go nowhere.
LC: Have any authorities tried to see what is going on? How they can help? Have you spoke with any of them?
HM: Not from the State or Municipal authorities. The ones patrolling the roads, the streets and alleys is the Mexican Army and the Federal Police, and I thank them for that. The Federal Police has lots of honest agents who really care for society, I´m really thankful to the Federal Government for at least watching over us.
LC: But they have you besiege, they watch over you but nothing gets to you.
HM: No, nothing, that´s all. They only patrol here, watching we don´t commit crimes, and we are here, but that´s all.
LC: Are you Afraid?
HM: I´m not afraid
LC: You are not afraid of “El Tio”?
HM: No. I´m not afraid of “El Tio”, or anyone else. I find “El Tio” funny
LC: You find “El Tio” funny?
HM: Yes. With the thing he said, I´m laughing, his friends make me laugh, and they´ll laugh when they see me laughing. I even think this thing he is doing is a game.
LC: But the Knights Templar have a lot of weapons, don´t they?
HM: It´s not a game, it looks like one to me, I´m not afraid of him or anyone. I wake up calm, I live calm
LC: And if someday the Knights Templar arrive in La Ruana, what´s going to happen?
HM: They did, we fought them.
LC: Will you fight them again?
HM: We already did, there were lots of deaths, but they don´t tell the public.
LC: How was that shootout?
HM: From what I saw, in the shootout we had 4 casualties and about 7 on their side.
LC: 7 deaths and 4 from you, 11..
HM: There were more, they took them in their SUV´s. The Knights Templar took a lot of corpses on their SUV´s
LC: Are you afraid they may go there and, maybe not to you, but, they may hurt the townspeople, the people in La Ruana?
HM: Of that I´m afraid, what they can do to my people, not what they can do to me, I´m not afraid of that.
LC: What does the Mayor of La Ruana tell you? What is he doing?
HM: Nothing, he´s the brother of one of the main drug dealers in the region
LC: Does he live there?
HM: No, he got out of here
LC: He used to live there?
HM: Yes, he lived here but he already left. Last week his brother was killed, he was the biggest drug dealer in the region.
LC: What is the name of the Mayor of La Ruana?
HM: Luis Torres Chavez
LC: And what is the name of the drug dealer he is associated with?
HM: It not his partner, it´s his brother, at least I don´t got proof of it.
LC: What was his brother´s name?
HM: Jesus Torres Chavez
LC: And nothing is known about Luis Torres Chavez?
HM: He´s working in Knights Templar´s areas, inside the municipality, there are some towns still under the Knights Templar control and he is working there
LC: Well, Mr. Hipolito Mora, you left me amazed with some of the statements you made here..
HM: Like what?
LC: For example, that you are not afraid of El Tio, the fact that they don’t let anybody in or out, the fact there´s no food, no gas, how do you live?
HM: We got gas, because some people go to towns from Jalisco and bring it here
LC: But the gas station is dry?
HM: Yes, yes, they bring their gas and sell it here and 12, 13 pesos, one fucker was selling it at 20 pesos but we told him “hey, lower it pal, we are almost broke and you want to kill us”
LC: What is going to happen with the lemon? Will you be able to harvest it again?
HM: Yes…
LC: The problem is getting it out, right?
HM: That´s the problem and I hope Mr. Peña Nieto does something about it, I hope he helps us, he comes here, and besides, that he releases my 40-something Communitarian Police arrested about 2 months ago, they are innocent young man, there were 51 but some of them have been released. I would like the President to notice they are poor people, many of the women here don´t have money for diapers, for milk, they are young women; some of them are their mothers. However we handed over to them 21 criminals captured by us the Communitarian Police, between Knights Templar and Hawks, we handed them to the government and the next day they were on the streets.
LC: You do know you can´t take justice on your hands, right? But you got tired of awaiting the authorities…
HM: I´ll ask you, what would you do if someone assaults your family and nobody helps them?
LC: Tough question…It´s complicated, of course.
LC: How much time were you under the Knights Templar yoke?
HM: Between the Knights Templar and La Familia Michoacana, about 8 to 9 years…
LC: 8 to 9 years?
HM: Yes
LC: And you got fed up?
HM: We were tired, right now we are more fucked than before but at least we are calm.
LC: Mr. Hipolito Mora, I want to thank you for taking this call and I hope we this isn´t the last time we do it.
HM: Anytime you want Sir, and please help us.
The following are some pictures published on the Facebook page VOZ CIUDADANA DE MICHOACAN, that page claims the Communitarian Police is nothing more than criminals backed up by CJNG.
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| Weapons confiscated by the Mexican Army to the Communitarian Police. |
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| The page claims this corpse belongs to an innocent citizen. He was killed in the fight against the Knigts Templar, |