Chinicuila, Michoacán: Organized Crime Has Killed Christmas, Nothing To Celebrate Here

"Sol Prendido" for Borderland Beat

The mayor is still without municipal authorities; police headquarters without officers and the citizens are in abandonment by the State and the Federation, while the attacks continue.

The innumerable attacks of crime organized in the municipality of Chinicuila, have left that town in Michoacán, without Christmas celebration, since most families have been displaced and the few remaining, seek to survive.

The no more than 60 inhabitants who have endured the criminal offensive only ask for a pair of wishes: that violence ends or that they receive more weapons to defend themselves as before.

Villa Victoria, the municipal head, has been one of the main targets by criminal organizations that try to seize and govern that place.

Inhabitants of that neighboring area with the state of Colima, calculate that about 800 families have left the municipality, which means almost half of the total population. 

That data has not been officially corroborated, because there are no authorities. What can be seen in the houses is the emptiness and on the streets a ghost town.

The remaining inhabitants, they didn’t even place Christmas trees or ornaments, as they say that there is nothing to celebrate.

The governor of Michoacán, Alfredo Ramírez Bedolla, said that in all of Tierra Caliente there are about 300 displaced individuals by violence.

He mentioned publicly that in the case of families exiled by violence in Chinicuila, they have taken refuge in the Colima capital.

That information was denied by some of these families, who clarified that they have fled to other places in Michoacán, where they have been given protection.

They said that many of the inhabitants will seek to flee to the United States and others will continue as refugees with family and friends in other municipalities.

15 years after the endless war against narco traffickers 

This month of December, 15 years ago the then president of the Republic, Felipe Calderón Hinojosa, declared war on organized crime groups and drug trafficking.

Its results: a fierce struggle, in which thousands of innocents died and an exponential increase in violation of human rights.

From the presidential hangar, the presidents plane flew to his native state Michoacán, where he sent his first military troops.

In the military offensive, 6 thousand 500 soldiers were sent to Michoacán to end the criminal siege of the then Familia Michoacana cartel. 

Dressed in a blue dress shirt, dark trousers and a military cap, the Commander in  Chief of the Armed Forces, announced the beginning of the "Michoacán Joint Operation".

To say of the then national leader, this was the first deployment "model", with which he was going to end the mobility and operability of organized crime.

The petition argued, by the then governor Lázaro Cárdenas Batel. The action by the federal government he said, was only an answer to that request.

Although the reference of violence was due to the five dismembered heads rolled onto the Sol y Sombra dance floor in the city of Uruapan, the antagonism by criminal groups had previously given alarms. 

Weeks earlier, a pregnant woman had been dismembered and exhibited on a public road. The victim was pointed out as a sentimental partner of a plaza boss. 

The battle on the streets of the narco traffickers had also left more individuals decapitated, dismembered, shot to death,  or mutilated from limbs.

This without counting the terrorist attack perpetrated on September 15, 2008 in Morelia, Felipe Calderón’s birth place, who left 13 dead and more than 100 injured.

That is, violence was already represented in "acts of barbarism"; As at the time, the Secretary of Government, Enrique Bautista had declared. 

The "security model" failed in that sexennium, according to the figures from the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Safety System.

The SESNSP estimates that during the "Calderon Strategy" there were within the entity 4,378 homicides in which, they cite open data, almost 7 thousand people were killed.

The foregoing, not counting the victims of disappearance and torture, at the hands of the institutions of the Mexican State and organized crime.

The Condemnation of Death

The next mandate, that of Enrique Peña Nieto, also filled the streets of blood.

In the case of Michoacán, the homicide figures skyrocketed. Just as well so did criminal acts in which federal officials, sent by him were involved.

The SESSP reported that from December 1, 2012 up to November 30, 2018, 6,943 homicides were recorded in Michoacán.

Those crimes, according to open data, resulted in a total of almost 9 thousand murdered, of which, most were killed by gunfire and the rest by other means. 

In the same manner, they are counting the people missing at the hands of the institutions of the Mexican State, as well as by organized crime.

For Enrique Peña Nieto, after his resounding failure with the gendarmerie, his solution was to break into Michoacán on behalf of Alfredo Castillo, to govern the entity.

In that sexennium, there were whole villages that rose up in arms, tired of the Knights Templar cartel siege. 

Peña Nieto, armed on average criminal groups and officialized them; Criminal organizations that have increased violence in the entity.

Furthermore, many of the officials who Enrique Peña sent to Michoacán, accordingly to reinforce safety, have been pointed out for their relationship with organized crime.

Others, such as in the case of Castillo Cervantes, abuse of power, forced disappearances and acts of corruption, sheltered in the illegal commission for the development and safety of Michoacán.

The Hugs And Not Gunfire Approach

The National Guard has been the seal of the current Federal Mandate of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, which has the public reminder of respecting the cartels, "because they are also human beings," he has reiterated.

Members of the CJNG, a few meters from the National Guard barracks in Villa Victoria, municipality of Chinicuila, Michoacán

For López Obrador, his policy of "hugs not gunfire", has left in Michoacán, since his administration began, 6,453 homicides.

That figure represents only 490 crimes less than what was accumulated in the sexennium of his predecessor Enrique Peña Nieto.

That is, that in just three years of the Lopez Obrador administration, the highest figure was recorded that in six years was accumulated within the most critical sexennium in the history of the country.

For Michoacán, López Obrador has sent, according to him, more than 10 thousand national guard elements; However, they have not given results.

This is the scenario of violence and insecurity in Michoacán, and the new failure of military operations and inaction of a Republic government for this December 24, in which the hugs have increased the gunfires. 

La Silla Rota