If It Is The Least Consolation...
The gunman that carjacked the Canadian Rainbirds Jeep, is now way down in the basement shoveling coal for eternity. I don't believe this "chisme" (gossip) to be idle rumor. There was a massive gunf...
Forum Discussion
I hate cut and paste articles but my fingers are aching with arthritis. You probably have read that I have historically STRONGLY discouraged camping or exploring in the northernmost part of Michoacan Coast. I refer to the area as the "X Villages". All the road signs announce the villages. Their names start with the letter "X". A unfortunate couple tried to start an RV park there and they were tossed out by the indigenous community. Life's dream, dashed.
The despised cut and paste method is used below to show someone's else's opinion as just how touchy the Nahua are. My point is this. This area has ALWAYS been sensitive. The indians pile out onto Mex 200 and close the road occasionally when gobernacion screws them yet again (join the crowd). You have heard of "Blockades" from years past. This article contains some truths. Enough to warrant reading. But CAUTION! Events that happen at or the X villages are NOT indicative of what is happening in the rest of Michoacan. There could easily be a battle there between the military and the indians. The indians are NOT RURALES. So remember. It's been this way since the road opened in the 1970's. They are cranky. I am hoping this stuff serves to educate RV'ers about visiting Michoacan and make them "manipulation resistant" against people and organizations that SELL HYSTERIA and alarm, and who wish to achieve a better rank around the water cooler.
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By: Alejandra Guillén
Aquila, Michoacán— Facing the demobilization of the autodefensas in the state, the coastal community of Santa María Ostula, located in the municipality of Aquila, found that members of its community police won’t be registering as rural police.
“Who we obey are the people, not the federal government”, they warned.
The commander of the community guard, Semeí Verdía, will present to the Secretariat of National Defense (SEDENA) the agreement from the meeting held on April 27 on Thursday in which they paid protest to the commanders and police of each of the 23 “managements”.
In total, 150 villagers total those who occupy this position voluntarily during the year.
The list includes the names of the people who make up the community security and the weapons that each will carry.
“The commissioner Alfredo Castillo agreed to respect our traditional forms of organization. He said that with indigenous peoples the process will be different”, Semeí Verdía said during an interview.
Only he and a few others are going to register as rural police in order to be able to move around armed and to ensure that when they enter into a “unified command”, they themselves will be the ones who will be entering the community as a security authority.
What we don’t want is for them to send people from outside.
Semeí, a 33 year old Nahua youth, escaped from his community in 2010, after someone tried to assassinate him in a soccer field located in the beach resort of Ticla.
Earlier this year, he observed the activity of the autodefensas and approached them for help. A month later, on February 7, Semeí and another “exiled” comrade led the advancement of the autodefensas who sprang out in Santa María Ostula.
Thereafter, the security strategy in the community has been different than the rest of the people who ‘rose up in arms’ against organized crime since 2013.
It’s because while the autodefensas are recovering the control from the coastal region and the Templarios have been fleeing in boats-including Federico González, El Lico, capo who controlled from Cerro de Ortega, in Colima, to El Faro, in Michoacán-, in car trunks or hiding in the Sierra Madre del Sur, the Nahua community took a break in order to revive their struggle and reconfigure their community police.
That is, the first group was the “necessary foundation” laid in order to stop the violence raging in the region, so that the indigenous Nahua people could speak, defend, and rebel without retaliation, in contrast to the 31 villagers killed and five missing persons in previous years from 2009 to 2013.
The support of the autodefensas from the municipalities of Chinicuila, Coalcomán and Coahuayana, on the coast of Aquila, remained until Sunday the 27th, and on that same day the community guard of Ostula was left in charge.
Semeí and those involved with the autodefensas of other municipalities passed their weapons directly to the police team in charge of where they live.
“This is a historic moment”, repeated some of the 880 attendees at the meeting last Sunday. First, because it was a symbolic act of triumph over the criminal cartel of the Caballeros Templarios.
Second, because this community guard functions similarly to the one they previously had during the 1980’s, which was disintegrated with the arrival of the municipal police.
Also, because although they had first attempted to reconfigure their community police and community guard for the recovery of 700 hectares of the coastal region now known as Xayakalan in June 2009, its members did not give in to protest against the meeting-“they gave weapons to all those who participated in the mobilization”- Trinidad, another resident, recalls- and a year they were disarmed.
“From now on we will look after each other. We take care of the residents and the residents take care of us…and watch out! To those of you who try to disorganize us like in 2009. After all the sufferings we’ve been through, we have to be very careful, we don’t forgive anyone who has ties to organized crime. We need to look very well”, Semeí concluded before the assembly, in which he also reported on the economic contributions of each person in charge of gasoline and food.
In this part of the state, the autodefensas have operated with three trucks in which they seized from organized crime, and only a few have been able to get weapons.
However, the community still fears that organized crime can return with “more couarage”, but meanwhile they will take advantage of this break in order to return to “rise up in arms”.
The despised cut and paste method is used below to show someone's else's opinion as just how touchy the Nahua are. My point is this. This area has ALWAYS been sensitive. The indians pile out onto Mex 200 and close the road occasionally when gobernacion screws them yet again (join the crowd). You have heard of "Blockades" from years past. This article contains some truths. Enough to warrant reading. But CAUTION! Events that happen at or the X villages are NOT indicative of what is happening in the rest of Michoacan. There could easily be a battle there between the military and the indians. The indians are NOT RURALES. So remember. It's been this way since the road opened in the 1970's. They are cranky. I am hoping this stuff serves to educate RV'ers about visiting Michoacan and make them "manipulation resistant" against people and organizations that SELL HYSTERIA and alarm, and who wish to achieve a better rank around the water cooler.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
By: Alejandra Guillén
Aquila, Michoacán— Facing the demobilization of the autodefensas in the state, the coastal community of Santa María Ostula, located in the municipality of Aquila, found that members of its community police won’t be registering as rural police.
“Who we obey are the people, not the federal government”, they warned.
The commander of the community guard, Semeí Verdía, will present to the Secretariat of National Defense (SEDENA) the agreement from the meeting held on April 27 on Thursday in which they paid protest to the commanders and police of each of the 23 “managements”.
In total, 150 villagers total those who occupy this position voluntarily during the year.
The list includes the names of the people who make up the community security and the weapons that each will carry.
“The commissioner Alfredo Castillo agreed to respect our traditional forms of organization. He said that with indigenous peoples the process will be different”, Semeí Verdía said during an interview.
Only he and a few others are going to register as rural police in order to be able to move around armed and to ensure that when they enter into a “unified command”, they themselves will be the ones who will be entering the community as a security authority.
What we don’t want is for them to send people from outside.
Semeí, a 33 year old Nahua youth, escaped from his community in 2010, after someone tried to assassinate him in a soccer field located in the beach resort of Ticla.
Earlier this year, he observed the activity of the autodefensas and approached them for help. A month later, on February 7, Semeí and another “exiled” comrade led the advancement of the autodefensas who sprang out in Santa María Ostula.
Thereafter, the security strategy in the community has been different than the rest of the people who ‘rose up in arms’ against organized crime since 2013.
It’s because while the autodefensas are recovering the control from the coastal region and the Templarios have been fleeing in boats-including Federico González, El Lico, capo who controlled from Cerro de Ortega, in Colima, to El Faro, in Michoacán-, in car trunks or hiding in the Sierra Madre del Sur, the Nahua community took a break in order to revive their struggle and reconfigure their community police.
That is, the first group was the “necessary foundation” laid in order to stop the violence raging in the region, so that the indigenous Nahua people could speak, defend, and rebel without retaliation, in contrast to the 31 villagers killed and five missing persons in previous years from 2009 to 2013.
The support of the autodefensas from the municipalities of Chinicuila, Coalcomán and Coahuayana, on the coast of Aquila, remained until Sunday the 27th, and on that same day the community guard of Ostula was left in charge.
Semeí and those involved with the autodefensas of other municipalities passed their weapons directly to the police team in charge of where they live.
“This is a historic moment”, repeated some of the 880 attendees at the meeting last Sunday. First, because it was a symbolic act of triumph over the criminal cartel of the Caballeros Templarios.
Second, because this community guard functions similarly to the one they previously had during the 1980’s, which was disintegrated with the arrival of the municipal police.
Also, because although they had first attempted to reconfigure their community police and community guard for the recovery of 700 hectares of the coastal region now known as Xayakalan in June 2009, its members did not give in to protest against the meeting-“they gave weapons to all those who participated in the mobilization”- Trinidad, another resident, recalls- and a year they were disarmed.
“From now on we will look after each other. We take care of the residents and the residents take care of us…and watch out! To those of you who try to disorganize us like in 2009. After all the sufferings we’ve been through, we have to be very careful, we don’t forgive anyone who has ties to organized crime. We need to look very well”, Semeí concluded before the assembly, in which he also reported on the economic contributions of each person in charge of gasoline and food.
In this part of the state, the autodefensas have operated with three trucks in which they seized from organized crime, and only a few have been able to get weapons.
However, the community still fears that organized crime can return with “more couarage”, but meanwhile they will take advantage of this break in order to return to “rise up in arms”.
