La Familia Michoacana debates journalist - "We should be applauded" for Covid19 help "Ungrateful ones, will be killed"

Chivis Martinez Borderland Beat

The narco set up a temporary twitter account to communicate with the journalist;   he wanted to "explain" .  Asked what happens if people denounce them?  "Then we will kill them for being ungrateful".

MVS Journalist Oscar Balderas spoke about the conversation he had with delivery of pantries (food boxes) of "La Familia Michoacana".

“A direct message came to my Twitter account last Saturday. It seemed to come from a false account: Because the profile was a jumble of letters and numbers with the image of a weapon. Many times they are bots that send false death threats. But this one… it seemed different”, he related.

"He spoke to me about himself and sent me the link to the Criminal Nation that three days before he had shared with listeners: the history of the world, and in Mexico, of the false aid of organized crime to the victims of the Covid-19, from loans to drug dealers. Then he presented himself as a dispenser of pantries for La Familia Michoacana and said he wanted to explain himself: he did not understand why people criticized him instead of applauding him, "he said.

What led up to this conversation (Reforma Portada):

Members of the Familia Michoacana (FM) - led by Jhonny Hurtado Olascoaga, el "Pez" and José Hurtado Olascoaga, "La Fresa" - distributed “pantries” to residents of communities in Tierra Caliente, Michoacán , which are located near Guerrero. 

In photos that were broadcast on social networks in the Tierra Caliente Region of  Guerrero, "Apoyo de la Familia Michoacana", "El Comando de la M", read in a message attached to the bag that contains various groceries such as oil, toilet paper, a box of cereal, bottled water, and soap.

The members of this organized crime organization that operates in municipalities of Tierra Caliente de Guerrero, Michoacán and the State of Mexico gave this help to the people from "El Pez" and "Fresa". 

This in the midst of the crisis they are experiencing due to Covid-19. 

The pantries were delivered to the inhabitants of San Lucas, Michoacán, and Villa de Guerrero in the State of Mexico. 

For almost a decade, this organization has maintained terror in municipalities of Tierra Caliente de Guerrero and neighboring communities in Michoacán and the State of Mexico.

 Pantry Boss "Daniel"

Then he introduced himself as a “pantry” boss for La Familia Michoacana and said he wanted to explain himself: he did not understand why people criticized him instead of applauding him.

I replied that I wanted to speak to him, but that I would need proof of his statements. Something to indicate that he belonged to a criminal group.

He promised that the evidence would come to me.

The evidence, “If you want more proof I will send a head”

The next day Sunday, another message arrived from that new account of just 22 tweets.

"What day of the month is today?" He asked. He immediately sent three images in which you can see a transparent plastic bag with cheap groceries and a flyer with the same type of narco-pantries that La Familia Michoacana had distributed last week in Edomex.

Another bag with oil, bleach, soap, and more was surrounded by vacuum-sealed marijuana packages, as packaged by drug traffickers who want to trick anti-drug dogs.

And everything had  a notebook sheet with the date of the day: April 19, 2020.

“I just took those photos, a  speck of what  I am going to move. And in my truck I bring 5 kilos more.

But if you want more proof, tomorrow I will send you a photo of a head”, he wrote me.

I felt a wrenching cramp in my gut, but agreed to speak to him.

He asked me to call him Daniel, like the prophet. He said he was 22 years old and his occupation is a thug in Tierra Caliente on the border of the State of Mexico and Michoacán.

According to him, the cartel is doing street work that the authorities do not do, that is, catch thieves and rapists and make sure people are fed.

In exchange, the FM charges a fee to patrol and monitor that "othro malos" (other bad guys) so they do not reach the town, like CJNG.

"We take care of people. Look at the pantries”, he writes to me.

"How much does each cost?" I ask him.

Daniel calculates the cost to be about 150 pesos. (apx 6 USD)

Last week, his group in the service of a capo nicknamed "El Pez" delivered 100 in one night, that is, they spent about 15 thousand pesos. (Apx 600USD)

I reply that the pantry is not a gift, but a very small return of everything they have collected, maliciously with extortion and kidnapping.

"Those people now owe their lives because of those groceries",  I insist.

Daniel fights back and clings to the fact that people love them, that he fills them with blessings and that they have already received invitations to go to Tecámac.

I reply that they do not want them: they fear them

"What if one of those who received the pantry, one day denounces them?" I insist.

After 10 minutes of inactivity, a cold message arrives:

"We kill them for being ungrateful." 

Daniel continues like this for 20 minutes: he vows that La Familia Michoacana does well, that they pay for school uniforms, paints churches and puts people into their homes to prevent the spread of COVID19.

"And what do they give you in exchange for so much loyalty? How much are you paid to deliver pantries? ”I ask.

Daniel says that they give him 200 pesos a night (8USD) and all the marijuana he can smoke; He does it not for money, but for "helping others".

"And could the people be helped without killing and without extortion?" I question him.

"No, because then where does the money come from to help?"

Yet, Daniel is convinced that the people to whom he gave cheap cookies that night went to bed grateful.

"A necessary evil?" I ask.

“If you want to see it that way, that's fine. I tell you that if the people are made to choose between the politicians and us ... the people go with us. "