“Citizen Council for Security of the Free and United Municipalities of the Sierra Coast of Michoacán” is Organized

This following report comes from Michoacán in Mexico, where autonomous community groups are forming security organizations in response to state repression and violence from drug trafficking organizations. 

To the public opinion

To the commission of human rights

To the international organizations

To the people of Mexico

On November 9th, 2017, as citizens and public officials of the municipalities of Coayuana, Aquila, Chinicuila, Coalcomán and Tepalcatepec, we decided to form a united front intended to unify and strengthen our struggle for security.  We are calling ourselves the Citizen Council for Security of the Free and United Municipalities of the Sierra Coast of Michoacán.

We want to inform the people of Mexico that the compañeros and leaders of our movement are being harassed by the institutions of the corrupt Federal and State governments represented by the Attorney General, Armed Marines and the Secretary of National Defense of Mexico.  Their manner of harassment is carried out through the fabrication of false crimes, accusing us of terrorism, human trafficking, money laundering, the robbery of gasoline, and kidnappings.  They are criminalizing the struggle that as citizens, we have been carrying out for a long time.  They are also persecuting our compañeros including Héctor Zepeda Navarrete, Cemeí Verdia Zepeda, José Luis Arteada Olivares, Germán Ramírez Sánchez, among others.  The purpose is to divide and weaken our movement.  It is important to note that as an organized movement, we have continually sought dialogue with the federal and state officials of the departments in charge of resolving such matters. They have ignored our requests.

With certainty we can say that this region of the Sierra Coast is one of the most secure of Mexico, if not the most.  This is largely due to the plan of citizen participation that has ended the corruption and complicity before being carried out by municipal officials and regional police officers in coordination with the drug cartels bosses.

Today, with the expulsion of the criminals, we have constructed a climate of security, peace and freedom in our municipalities, permitting us to have secure working conditions and social development that benefits our families.  As such, as citizens of the free municipalities, we unite to struggle against organized crime in a determined manner.  We will unite our struggle against the lies and slanders of the Federal and State governments, to stop the detention of our compañeros in charge of security in our region.  With this, the municipalities that make up the Citizen Council proclaim:

First.  Facing the neoliberal war of extermination, our municipalities, towns, tribes and nations, as well as the communities that integrate them, have the inalienable right, derived from article 39 of the constitution, to organize and carry out the defense of our lives, security, freedoms, fundamental rights, culture and territories.

Second. In consequence, we denounce and reject whatever government action meant to discredit and impede our legitimate right to defense of our existence, security, freedom, fundamental rights, culture and territories.  Furthermore, we declare that any government action attempting to criminalize our organization for self-defense has no other intention than to facilitate the repression and destruction of our municipalities.

Third. Respect to our organization dedicated to security and peace in our region.  We demand that the government stop the harassment against our leaders and cease the false arrest orders, driven by organized crime and backed by the corrupt government.  We name the governments responsible for any action that threatens the life of the members of our organization.

Sincerely,

Citizen Council for Security of the Free and United Municipalities of the Sierra Coast of Michoacán

“Never More a Mexico Without Us”

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