The mysterious dissapearance of the 12 autodefensas

Translated for Borderland Beat from a Sinembargo article by Otis B Fly-Wheel

Tierra Caliente, that place in Mexico set on fire by the Caballeros Templarios with their colluding Government contacts, now seems calm. But new indications are that the understanding and the impunity did not disappear with the capture of Servando Gomez Martinez "LaTuta" and the death of Narazio Moreno "El Mas Loco".

It only appears to have dissipated like a cloud of dust, in Michoacán the dead leave their clandestine graves, some of them made of flesh and bone and others their stories. In the case of a dozen auto-defensas that disappeared in Uruapan at the end of November past and of those only the heads of two the Serafin brothers have been located.

Relatives and self defence forces colleagues of those missing auto-defensas say they have confirmed details from the Governor himself that men were kidnapped and killed by Federal Police.

A mausoleum like the final resting place of a Templar.

Uruapan, Michoacán, 18th of March (SinEmbargo)
At the beginning of December 2014, the crematorium of the Municipal Cemetary of Apatzingan broke down because of over use, so the head of Pedro Serafin, the only part of the Rural Policeman found so far, had to be buried in a full coffin.



The band played Northern Corridos for an hour and a half, recalls the gravedigger. He remembers it because of the songs, the beer, groans and howls of promised revenge, which he reflects is unusual for men opposed to the narco, but much more common at the funerals of drug traffickers.

With the exception of the music, everything else in the burial of Pedro Serafin was ordinary. His head with a hair cut, and a well defined padlock shaped beard, was laid in a rectangular metal coffin painted bright gray.

There is no headstone, but a lot of loose soil still lumpy and cracked by the heat that winter hasn't managed to check. A simple iron cross with his name, his date of birth, June 27th 1985, and his death, on November 24th 2014.

The funeral of his brother, Gerado Serafin was not very different, although it happened in Uruapan, but all else was equal. His mother or wife could not cut his finger nails, or unwrinkle the formal suit he had been dressed in, and which would have made him uncomfortable, with shined shoes he was fit to deliver elegantly to the Tierra Caliente, as there was only a head to bury on the same day of November 24th.

Nothing but the head to inter, because they and another ten had revolted against the Templars of Michoacán, and had disappeared and nobody knows anything.

The grave of Serafin Mora

The Commission for Security and Internal Improvement in the State of Michoacán, a decentralized body of the Ministry of the Interior, said they knew nothing and that in Michoacan nobody had reported Rurales missing, and with this technicality, denied the disappearances.

In all nobody knew anything about Nicolas Licea Blancas, 21 years of age, nor Sergio Gilberto Gomez Magana, 33 years of age, also Armando Villanueuva Torres,"La Pugla", 37 years of age, nor "El Mico", "El Borre", "El Moto", "El Fu", and of the Guachos "El Rojo" nor Alejandro.

We went to see the acting Governor Salvador Jara Guerrero, and he told us clearly: those guys the Federal Police disappeared them, said a relative of one of the absent.

And who said that?

As I am saying to you and I swear by my children that Orita doesn't know if she should wait for her father or pray for him, sobbed the source.

Was it only said to you?

No, he said it to several family members, we were received by him because you closed the road a few days after our people did not appear.

Federal Police or Army or Marina?

Federal Police.

Empty graves in Apatzingan Cemetary

They killed all my colleagues. The only ones that stayed behind were I and three of my colleagues, the only ones that did not leave on that patrol on Sunday 23rd of November, says a man with a short visor cap that makes his head look too big.

His eyes are green and large, so he seems like a gian t Angora cat. "They went to Apatzingan and never returned". We heard nothing until we went to Tiamba to recognise the heads of Geraldo and Nicolas.

Geraldo Serafin was the head of a Group of Self Defence forces, all of them in the process of certification as Rural Police after having delivered the required documents to be recognized by the Commission, then headed by Alfredo Castillo Cervantes, a politician close to EPN.

Why are the Government not admitted that heads are two of the missing dozen, asks the self defence member.

Because I don't know, I don't know their plan, I do not know the truth of what is happening in Government, because we knew our " padron" we knew Geraldo Serafin well he is our boss, then we saw the heads, and we knew the answer to where they are.

How long had you been auto defensas before the moment they disappeared?

Eight months we got up against those Knights Templar, you see we could not move an avocado, fruit or mangos, because the KT would ask us for money, I had to give 15% of everything I earned. They knew everything we had because they were extorting the people we sold to.

Which documents did you submit to enlist?

They asked for birth certificates, proof of address, CURP, receive light, and voter registration card. They promised up weapons, AR-15's and Shotguns, but they delivered nothing, so we were with our horns and nines, ( Otis: Ak47's and 9mm pistols ). They even gave us insurance, Nothing, those wounded in the troops with gun fights with the Templars, were given care and cooperation of all and many time the Aguacateros, who also gave us weapons.

What were they doing when they were kidnapped?

Travelling on a Surveillance mission in the Tierra Caliente, to Apatzingan. It was a surveillance mission nothing more, three Trucks left, two Cherokee, one white and one gray, and a Lobo also gray. Geraldo Serafin was on point, it was a very normal day, it was just passed 7 in the evening.

And later ?

We didn't know anything until four in the morning, they told us there was an ambush, but we were not told where. Just that my boss had been seized and the people with him.

But if there had been an ambush, they would have known where it occurred?

One must have known, but I heard nothing, nothing is known about the trucks either, its as if the earth had swallowed them up, both vans and people, no sign of either.

No clothes?

All we have found are the heads of my boss and his brother.

No guns?

Nothing, said one man with a bullet proof jacket intervened, or vultures, where they are flying we are looking for the dead, nothing, the main raises an eyebrow.

What do you suggest happened?

It was the Feds, no one knew of a confrontation, we had trusted them and with their weapons down the Feds opened fire and killed them all. We know it was the Feds. Here every family member of the dead says they knew it was the Feds.

Which Federales were they?

Ones that we are searching for.

The first auto defensa who looks like a giant cat, recalls the morning that he had to frighten wild dogs and flies away from the heads of the two Serafin brothers.

They were on the floor with a manta which said, " here is the untouchable Gera or G1, they say we go with all, and are against all, compliments Guardia Michoacán."

Guardia Michoacán, what does that sound like to you?

Well its the same cartel of the Templars, only now they have a another name

And the heads?

We delivered them together, and mourned, one funeral in Uruapan and one in Apatzingan, I did not attend the funerals as I felt very bad.

Did it scare you? I ask with all respect.

I'm not afraid, the simple truth is if I did this there was a chance to succeed, also I know some day they will kill me, but if there is a chance I'm going to defend.

Something more, after the disappearance of the Serafin brothers and the other 10, antagonistic self defence groups, including that of Estanislao Beltran "Papa Smurf", spread the rumor that the young people were kidnapped as a result of alleged illegal activities in which they were involved.

No one has confirmed this version, but there is a clarification to the previous rumor, twelve boys missing, mostly from Apatzingan, belonging to the AUC of prisoner doctor Jose Manuel Mireles, turn opposite to "Papa Smurf" due to their proximity to Alfredo Castillo.

Altar SanCharbel Michoacán.

The PRI man Aldo Macias is the Mayor of Uruapan, the Municipality with duty of care to the 12 missing at the end of November.

For each one there is a mother who is suffering  and they dedicated themselves to something else and were Rurales, and apparently were outside when they disappeared.

What is your opinion concerning the position that the Federal Government has taken about the missing 12?



The Police must be cold, the Police apparently should not have feelings, In this case you should not forget that those who were killed were human beings, right now two heads have rolled, we don't want that they turn that into four or six.

Have you approached the families of the missing Rurales?

No, the truth, no, I have not approached them because they have not approached us.

Original article in Spanish at SinEmbargo by Humberto Padgett.