Sierra-Costa of Michoacán: Against the Militarization and the Reorganization of the Templarios Cartel

Translated and Submitted to It’s Going Down

To Mexican Society

To the Government of the State of Michoacán

To the Federal Government

The self-defense and community police groups in the Sierra Costa of Michoacán, of the communities of Santa María Ostula, Pómaro, San Juan Huitzontla and Aquila, as well as the groups of self-defense of the Sierra Costa of Michoácan, announce that we will continue holding the municipal presidencies of Coahuayana, Chinicuila, and Aquila. We will also maintain the blockade installed on the federal highway 200 until agreements are reached and our requests are fulfilled. These initiatives are part of the mobilizations initiated to defend our community security, demanding the end of repression and the dismantling of the narco-criminal groups.

We make it clear that the security of our communities is not under negotiation. There are deaths in our municipalities, those whom are assassinated and disappeared, violations of women, families extorted and destroyed, thousands of people in the region who are displaced by criminal violence, communities displaced of their sacred lands, minerals, and precious trees that are in danger of extinction. This speaks to our staunch determination that the death and violence will not return to our municipalities and communities. We can not negotiate because this would mean us submitting to so much death that our families become accustomed to it, to make fear the only truth, to forget hope that the darkness will end.

The detention and constant harassment of our community police and self-defense groups on part of the Marines, Mexican Military, and Federal and State police, disrupts peace in the region. For our families it is comparable to the permanent harassment by organized crime groups. These groups penetrate the region implementing terror and revenge against those that organize, against those that seek life against the fear and death to which we have been subjected.

Despite the numerous reports we have made regarding the presence and reorganization of the templario leaders, Tena, Tuco, Chuy Playas, Federico González (Lico), and Mario Álvarez López in the east of our municipality, the governmental security forces have dedicated more to the persecution and criminalization of the community police and self-defense groups than they have done to search or detain the narco-leaders. They have favored the re-articulation of the narco-groups and sought to deplete the capacity of our security bodies to guarantee the integrity of the population.

We demand evidence that the government of the state of Michoacán and the Federal government have the disposition to cultivate peace and security in the region and not, on the contrary, allow the templarios to return and to take the lives of all of us. We demand:

1. That the arrest orders are canceled against our commander Germán Ramírez and all of the community police and self-defense groups of the municipalities of Aquila, Chinicuila and Coahuayana, as well as the immediate liberty of the community police member Aristóteles Flores Chávez.
2. The demilitarization of the Costa Sierra region, and the punishment of the military members involved in the assassination of the boy Hidelberto Reyes García, killed by the Mexican Military on July 19, 2015, in the communal territories of Santa María Ostula.
3. The arrest of the templario leaders Tena, Tuco, Chuy Playas, Federico González (El Lico), and Mario Alvarez Lopez (El Chacal) and the dismantling of the economic and political structure that sustains them
4. Guaranteed respect for the functioning of the community police and auto-defense groups in the municipalities of Aquila, Chinicuila and Coahuayana and the end of the police and military harassment, as well as the imposition of elements with whom we have no confidence
5. The definite end to the implementation of the single command police in the municipalities of the Sierra-Costa of Michoacán
6. The presentation with life of the six disappeared of the community of Santa María Ostula and punishment of those culpable of the 34 assassinated for having defended their land
7. Full respect for the territory of the Indigenous communities of the region and the cancellation of the mining concessions that have been authorized without the consent of the communities

Sincerely,

November 10, 2016

Indigenous Community of Santa María Ostula

Indigenous Community of Pómaro

Indigenous Community of San Juan Huizontla, Municipality of Chinicuila

Citizen Assembly of Security of Coahuayana

Self-Defense Groups of the Municipality of Aquila

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