[Peace-discuss] (no subject)

[David Johnson via Peace-discuss]

Although this article was first published in September, there was another
conflict with these armed self defense groups in Mexico this weekend. In
addition to the violent oppression by the government against striking
Teachers this weekend and the continued protests against the Mexican
government in relation to the missing / murdered Student Teachers.

OUR tax dollars are preventing change for the better in Mexico by propping
up the Mexican government with weapons and military hardware, so that the
Mexican elites, the drug cartels, and U.S. corporate special interests can
continue their reign of terror and efforts to privatize land and energy
resources that belong to the Mexican people and destroy  Unions and public
education. 

 

 

Jailed Mexican Self-Defense Leader Calls for True Independence from Cartels,
Corruption, and Oligarchies

Description: Jose Manuel Mireles (Photo: Reuters)

Jose Manuel Mireles (Photo: Reuters) | Photo: Reuters

Published 16 September 2014 

0

Description: Coments
<http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Jailed-Mexican-Self-Defense-Leader-Ca
lls-for-True-Independence-from-Cartels-Corruption-and-Oligarchies-20140916-0
082.html#comsup> + 

"There is no independence to celebrate" according to Jose Manuel Mireles.

Jose Manuel Mireles, a leader of the vigilante movement in Michoacan, gave
an independence speech from prison on September 15, Mexico's Day of
Independence. Through his lawyer, Talia Vazquez Alatorre, he called for the
unity of various sectors of Mexican society in confronting corruption and
organized crime.

"Mexicans: long live the heroes who gave us our homeland, long live the
heroes of the independence struggle, long live the brave Mexicans who are
confronting violence, corruption and oppression! . Long live Mexico!" he
said, in words reminiscent of the traditional independence speeches given by
governments everywhere on September 15.

Mireles is being held in maximum security prison in Hermosillo, in the
Mexican state of Sonora.  The authorities arrested him on July 26, 2014, and
accused the self-defense group leader of carrying illegal weapons and
committing crimes against the public health.

Mireles, who is known as "Papa Cop", became one of the main leaders of the
self-defense  groups in the Mexican state of Michoacan. Known by others as
vigilante groups, Mireles' group came together to fight the rise of the
Caballero Templarios (Knights Templar), a particularly violent drug cartel
which had been plaguing the state for some time.   

"They jail us for defending our families from the assassins," he said. 

For Mireles, Mexico has not achieved true independence until it breaks free
from corruption, oligarchical forces, and the cartels.

In his video message, Mireles compared the Mexican federal forces of today
to the Royal Army under the viceroy of New Spain of yesteryear's New Spain.

"The viceroy was stubborn and ignorant," he said in the video posted on
Youtube.  "He thought you could control the tide of change. He thought by
imprisoning the insurgent leaders you could jail the leaders of the Mexican
revolution. But eleven years later, what he thought turned out to be absurd.
History cannot be stopped."

Mireles sees himself and others in the movement as likewise unjustly
imprisoned for carrying out self-defense. According to him, his group in
Michoacan was doing nothing but defending their families from violence and
oppression, as all revolutionaries throughout Mexico's history have done.

"The Michoacan vigilante groups and all Mexicans throughout the country have
been victims of organized crime and impunity," he said. "We have already
given our blood for the true independence of Mexico."

And in Michoacan, these problems, particularly with the drug cartel called
the Caballeros Templarios go back several years.

The Daily Mail reported on January 5, 2014 that around 600 members of local
self-defense groups stormed the town of Paracuaro in an attempt to seize
control of it back from the Caballeros Templarios drug cartel. A year
before, the entire police force in another Michoacan town resigned out of
fear for their safety following attacks and threats by the criminal group,
reported Notimex.

And the same problems have replicated in many states all over northern
Mexico, reinforcing in Mireles the dire need for Mexicans to continue this
ongoing independence struggle.

"While we are not free from violence, and we cannot govern together or work
together as one nation building democracy together, by toppling the
oligarchy and purging our current system, giving dignity to the people, we
are not independent, either in the eyes of the world's nations or the
criminal cartels," Mireles said.  "The independence of Mexico from Spain
could not have been won without insurgency," he said.

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace-discuss/attachments/20150104/8a1df621/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 54836 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace-discuss/attachments/20150104/8a1df621/attachment-0001.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image002.png
Type: image/png
Size: 584 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace-discuss/attachments/20150104/8a1df621/attachment-0001.png>