They say men are becoming scarce: ‘As soon as they see a man who can carry a gun, they take him away’
A group of women in Michoacán has taken up arms to protect their small town from the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), Mexico’s most powerful and violent criminal organization.
The Associated Press (AP) reported that an all-women self-defense group has emerged in El Terrero, a village in the Tierra Caliente region of Michoacán. The women tote assault rifles and set up roadblocks to defend the village from what they describe as the CJNG’s bloody incursion into the state.
Some of the almost 50 female vigilantes are pregnant and some take their small children with them as they patrol El Terrero. They told AP they fear CJNG gunmen could enter the town at any time via the rural area’s dirt roads.
Many of the vigilantes have lost family members in the violence that has long plagued the Tierra Caliente. Eufresina Blanco Nava said her 29-year-old son, a lime picker, was abducted by presumed CJNG members and never seen again.
“They have disappeared a lot of people … and young girls, too,” she said.
Another woman who asked not to be identified because she has relatives in CJNG strongholds told AP that the Jalisco cartel kidnapped and presumably killed her 14-year-old daughter.
“We are going to defend those we have left, the children we have left, with our lives,” she said. “We women are tired of seeing our children, our families disappear. They take our sons, they take our daughters, our relatives, our husbands.”
One reason why an all-women self defense group has emerged in El Terrero is because “men are growing scarce” in the lime-growing Tierra Caliente region, AP said.
“As soon as they see a man who can carry a gun, they take him away,” said the unidentified vigilante. “They disappear. We don’t know if they have them [as recruits] or if they already killed them.”
The group doesn’t only use assault weapons and roadblocks to defend their town. They also have a homemade tank – a large pickup truck reinforced with steel plate armor.
El Terrero has long been dominated by the Nueva Familia Michoacana cartel and the Los Viagras gang, AP said, but the CJNG control nearby areas and is determined to increase its area of influence. Naranjo de Chila, a town just across the Grande River from El Terrero, is the birthplace of CJNG leader Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes, Mexico’s most wanted drug lord.
The women vigilantes have been accused by some people of being foot soldiers of the Nueva Familia or Los Viagras but they deny the allegations, although AP said “they clearly see the Jalisco cartel as their foe.”
They told the news agency that they would be very happy if the police and army came to El Terrero and took over the job they are currently doing.
One person who doubts that the women vigilantes are bona fide self-defense force members is Hipólito Mora, founder of a self-defense force in the nearby town of La Ruana that took up arms against the Caballeros Templarios (Knights Templar) cartel in 2013.
“I can almost assure you they are not legitimate self-defense activists,” said Mora, who three weeks ago announced his intention to run for governor of Michoacán at the elections in June.
“They are organized crime. … The few self-defense groups that exist have allowed themselves to be infiltrated; they are criminals disguised as self-defense.”
However, Mora acknowledged that the same conditions that forced him to take up arms remain. The authorities and police still don’t guarantee security, he said.
AP noted that Governor Silvano Aureoles also rejects the legitimacy of the self-defense groups in the state.
“They are criminals, period. Now, to cloak themselves and protect their illegal activities, they call themselves self-defense groups, as if that were some passport for impunity,” he said.
Source: AP (sp)
In other Mexico news:
US Chamber of Commerce warns against changes to Mexico’s electricity market
‘Deeply troubling’ legislation contravenes commitments under the North American trade agreement
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce warned Friday that the latest move in Mexico’s quest for energy sovereignty directly contravenes its commitments under the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement.
President López Obrador sent a bill to Congress last Monday that makes major changes to the electricity market that favor the state-owned Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) and deals another blow to the renewable energy industry.
It was the boldest move yet in the government’s efforts to change the rules in the energy sector and give preference to the CFE and the state oil company, Pemex.
U.S. Chamber of Commerce vice president Neil Herrington described the bill as “deeply troubling” and cautioned that it would open the door to reinstating a monopoly in the electricity sector. He also predicted the changes would result in a significant increase in the cost of electricity and limit access to clean energy.
“Unfortunately, this move is the latest in a pattern of troubling decisions taken by the government of Mexico that have undermined the confidence of foreign investors in the country at the precise moment enhanced foreign direct investment in Mexico is needed more than ever. As the country emerges from its worst economic contraction since the Great Depression, nothing will prove more vital to its recovery than the jobs and growth that U.S. and other foreign investors generate.”
Herrington urged Mexico to withdraw the bill from consideration and work with the private sector to find solutions to bolster the energy industry.
The legislation is likely to be approved by the Morena party-controlled Congress but another recent development suggests it might not survive a legal challenge.
The Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday against key elements of a federal energy policy that also seeks to reshape the electricity market in favor of the CFE.
It struck down 22 provisions of the policy on the grounds that they violated the constitution in areas of free competition and sustainability.
The Chamber of Commerce criticism came after Mexico’s leading business lobby launched an unusually strong rebuke of the latest attempt by the government to reverse measures that went into force with the previous government’s sweeping energy reforms.
The Business Coordinating Council described the bill as an “indirect expropriation” that violates international trade agreements. It warned that it would raise energy prices and “irredeemably” damage regulatory and contractual certainty in Latin America’s second largest economy.
The minister of energy responded by denying that any firm would be expropriated and repeated a previous argument that energy reforms had put the CFE in a straitjacket with policies that forced it to buy electricity it didn’t need.
