Dr. José Manuel Mireles knew he would be arrested. He sensed betrayal and awaited this cowardly act as manifest destiny [sic]. The order, they told him, comes directly from Alfredo Castillo, Commissioner for Public Security in Michoacán. The warning that the federal official had given was clear: "Pacify him."
They lied. Someone told him that an Army representative wanted to speak with him. When Mireles went to meet him, he was arrested. His last words before his arrest were:
"I do not want to be a martyr. They have betrayed me many times, but if there is a betrayal, I want the people of Mexico to know that I just want to keep making progress on the project that the true self-defense movement raised: clean our state of the criminals, wherever they are found, even in the state government or even in the representation of the federal government, as is currently happening in Michoacán."
Starting at 1:30 AM, Dr. Mireles claimed to have received threats from Papa Smurf (Estanislao Beltrán), so he asked his Citizen Council of Self-Defense to record a message:
"At 7:45 AM we entered La Mira with 300 people we brought here from Caleta [de Campos] and another 300 from here who had come to see me. At 8:30 AM an Army officer arrived to greet me. The General sends word that they are at our orders with support if we need it.
"The threats were that Papa Smurf was coming with Los Viagras, El Cinco, El Burro and 300 gunmen who are charging from all sides, and they say that it's on the orders of Alfredo Castillo, who says to pacify me, which is what they told all the fellow self-defense members in Tancítaro."Castillo's Cuban Assistant
Meanwhile in La Mira, he [Mireles] was preparing the assembly to join the Citizen Council for Self-Defense, with the goal of their being the ones who would elect their [self-defense] members. Mireles was not willing to abandon his people:
"They had been receiving threats like this from Ilse since 4:00 PM of the previous day. Ilse is the Cuban who goes around with Castillo in the drama of supposedly arming self-defense groups, considering the 15,000 armed men who had been in Tepeque [nickname for Tepalcatepec, Mireles' hometown], but they disarmed just 120. Of those, 60 were on duty and 60 were resting. That's the main joke of what they do: first they minimize them, then they toy with them."Mireles accused Ilse, Castillo's "Cuban assistant," of threatening the self-defense groups from the Michoacán Coast:
"She told them that if they continue supporting Mireles' social movement without her permission, they were going to have very serious problems. Moreover, we had to get a document signed by the head of the village, which why the residents of La Mira went to Caleta de Campos to request our presence in Lázaro Cárdenas in order to organize citizens' self-defense."And that's what they were doing when Dr. Mireles was arrested by federal forces:
"We have great fear that they will come with the theatrics that Castillo puts on with Papa Smurf and his Viagras and all the armed men that he brings. It is not possible that instead of coming to support the cleanup that we are doing across our state, they might come not only to impede our progress, but also to disarm and detain all the people who believe in a social movement and believe that it is the only way to protect their lives and the lives of their families."The situation became increasingly tense. Dr. Mireles had information that between La Mira and Lázaro Cárdenas there was a clandestine grave with 32 bodies. They made the report to the Federales, although officially they [government] announced they found 12 bodies. Mireles said:
"I want that information disclosed. There are 210 bodies in the first pit they found, but even so, there are many [hidden graves] along this stretch."Mireles added:
"We enjoy the moral support of all Michoacanos, wherever they are, and we also have the moral support of all Mexicans, because we want to move forward to clean our state of the criminals. So we do not accept, no, we do not see that this part of the federal government that they sent here is helping us; instead, it is hindering, blocking and detaining us."Dr. Mireles had been in La Mira for 36 hours when he was arrested by federal forces with 82 men who accompanied him. They were charged with violations of the Federal Firearms and Explosives Law, because allegedly at the time of their detention they were carrying weapons for the exclusive use of the armed forces.
Citizen Council of National Movement for Self-Defense: Statement
The Citizen Council of the National Movement for Self-Defense issued a statement, which it gave to La Jornada. The text demands the immediate release of Dr. Mireles and the other men with him:
"The self-defense members who were arrested are no more than the guarantor expression of the dignity and sovereignty that our Constitution recognizes. The territory of Michoacán, like the rest of the country, was hijacked by an inhumane, armed, cruel and violent rebellion, which finds its expression in organized crime and the corrupt government that cooperates with it.
"Due to the public disorder that this signifies, in said state a government was established contrary to the principles emanating from our Constitution. The self-defense forces did not do, and are not doing, anything other than recovering the freedom of the people, and they have no more message than the restoration of constitutional order that both organized crime and the corrupt government have systematically violated."They believe that Commissioner Alfredo Castillo "betrayed" the people's interests and constitutional order:
"José Manuel Mireles Valverde, in the flesh, represents the dignity of the people of Mexico against oppression and misrule. He and the self-defense movement evoke nothing more than the desire for freedom and justice of which Article 136 of our Constitution speaks.
"To the contrary, Alfredo Castillo represents, also in the flesh, collusion between organized crime and those hijacked institutions; he personifies the bad lawyer dictator who with papers in hand tries to cover up the reality that their acts and omissions generate.
"Castillo must understand that he is ignorant of the reality in Michoacán; that before his arrival the people had suffered a decade of violence, oppression, helplessness and frustration. He must understand that the institutions that he defends are the same ones that have for years turned their backs on the people of Michoacán; that [in a contest] between the law and life, life is always privileged and that, in any case, the self-defense groups do nothing more than defend the Constitution against the disorder."The text adds:
"The uprising by self-defense members is not a violation of the law, but only and exclusively restoration thereof. In this valiant war that our Michoacán countrymen are waging, to argue that carrying arms is a crime seems worthy of a farce.
"It is essential that Alfredo Castillo and the government that shelters him remember that this war has its origins in their negligence, which ends neither with speeches nor acts of presence by a federal delegate in Michoacán. They must understand that no one takes up arms for fun, and that if the people go around armed it is because if they put down their weapons, they would be committing suicide."Dr. Mireles Family: "He is innocent"
Through a spokesperson, the family of Dr. Mireles told La Jornada that the detention is illegal and that there is no crime to prosecute since all the weapons that Mireles and his bodyguards brought were registered [with the government] at the time.
They revealed that the arrest was a "betrayal" by Commissioner Alfredo Castillo, who reached agreement with Dr. Mireles to register police legally in La Mira:
"It was a trap, well planned by Castillo, who set the trap. He has always wanted to fuck [Mireles]. They were beaten. We demand their immediate release, and we hold the government responsible for anything that happens to them. He is innocent."For Dr. Mireles' family, his arrest confirms the link between Castillo and organized crime:
"It is he who drives La Tuta to the H3 cartel and the Federales. They are the cartel, pure scoundrels. They are untouchable.
"As La Tuta cannot move now with The Templars, because the people know them, they move around in government helicopters: That's what these assholes are doing! That's what we all know in Michoacán!"