Stay Armed and Ready, Beleaguered Mexican Cartel Tells Members

EFE

A prominent leader of the La Familia Michoacana drug cartel called Wednesday on his followers to be “ready with the arms” and willing to take on Los Zetas, another criminal organization that is supposedly trying to seize control of areas in western Mexico.

“If they think that in this way they are going to go into Michoacan and Los Zetas are going to occupy our turf or our towns ... How wrong they are! Let’s show them what we’re made of, we’re a family, let’s show unity ... Nobody can abandon any area,” Servando Gomez said.

The drug trafficker confirmed the death on Dec. 8 of Nazario Moreno Gonzalez, reputed leader of La Familia, in a radio message broadcast by Televisa.

“May God take him into His Holy Glory!” Gomez said, calling on La Familia members to not be “easy targets to locate” and to remain armed.

“Everything is going to be the same, don’t worry. God is with us until victory,” Gomez, known as La Tuta, said.

The drug cartel boss expressed regret that the Mexican government did not pay attention to the criminal organization’s Nov. 9 offer to disband if authorities promised to take control of Michoacan state “with firmness and decisiveness.”

“We have a cause, a just social cause, because of how badly they have treated us. They did not want to abide by the pact that we offered for a month so they could take the reins in the matter. And what did they do? Come to attack us, well, all out, what a nice response from the government,” Gomez said.

The offer to disband was made in a letter sent by La Familia Michoacana to media outlets.

Banners containing the missive also were hung in different areas of Michoacan and the letter was posted on telephone booths and slipped under the doors of homes in several towns.

The criminal organization defended its actions since 2005 as a response to the Mexican government’s failure “to provide security to its citizens.”

La Familia Michoacana is a drug cartel infamous for decapitating and dismembering enemies, as well as for mounting attacks on the security forces.

The criminal organization, which also operates in the southern state of Guerrero, is considered the largest trafficker of synthetic drugs in Mexico.

La Familia, according to experts, is one of Mexico’s most powerful drug trafficking organizations, along with the Sinaloa, Tijuana, Gulf, Juarez, Los Zetas and Beltran Leyva mobs.

The cartels are responsible in large part for the violence that has claimed nearly 30,000 lives nationwide in the past four years.