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 Murder in Uruapan, Michoacan (courtesy borderlandbeat.com)

The U.S. media continues to ignore the terrible fate of Mexico’s disarmed, disenfranchised and terrorized population. The story of the attempts of civilians to arm themselves and their success when they do are buried—along with Mexican journalists. Please read this article—republished with permission from borderlandbeat.com—through to the last sentence.

Miguel Patino Velazquez bishop Apatzingán  accused Michoacan of being a “failed state, because there is no law and justice, causing insecurity, rivalry, indifference, death and oppression.”

“When there is no justice, there is no peace, no development, no prosperity, or welfare in society” and this is how we live in the state,” he claimed in a statement. The bishop argued that the presence of the Federal Police, the Army and the Navy has not been effective.

“They have increased kidnappings, abductions, murders, and user fees are widespread. Entire families have emigrated from the insecurity and fear in which we are living,” he said.

The violence, he said, is caused by a lack of authority and the complicity of various levels of government with organized crime, so there is “fear, sadness, anger and distrust.

“Society wonders why the federal forces “have not been able to discover the safe houses of the criminals and to date have not released anyone, when there are dozens and dozens of people kidnapped,” he added.

But he said: “we give them the vote of confidence and hope they have the firm intention to solve the problem.”

The bishop said criminal groups such as La Familia Michoacana, Los Zetas , New Generation and The Knights Templar mainly compete for the state like a big prize.

March ’13-Executed in Urapan-posed on chairs in a traffic circle

Cartels fight around “the coast for the entry of the supplies for the production of synthetic drugs and for the drugs themselves They fight in the Sierra Madre del Sur and avocado area for growing marijuana and poppy, and for the establishment of laboratories for the production and of synthetic drugs. Criminal groups fight in/for the major cities and the entire state for the smuggling and drug trade routes, security sales, kidnappings, robberies and all kinds of extortion,” he said.

Patino reported that drug cartels force the population, mainly social leaders, to sign pacts and ask that the federal forces to do the same in Michoacan.

In addition, he said, they  threaten land commissioners who go to Congress and make the same demands.

He recalled that there are six municipalities, people saw their local governments sell out to organized crime, and the inability of the federal authorities to restore the rule of law. These places have taken the initiative organize to defend themselves.

In these municipalities, he said, where they expelled the organized crime, thus quotas, extortion, kidnappings, murders and rapes ended.

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30 COMMENTS

  1. I call BS. Everyone knows strict gun laws in Mexico would never allow this to happen. The NRA must be behind ALL crime and ALL violence, and this is just fear mongering…

    And I bet some of the anti-rights crowd would believe the previous statements.

  2. The USA could try to cull these groups financially by ending the war on drugs and legitimizing many of the narcotics that that trade. Marijuana is a big contender for legalization with IIRC more than half of Americans ok with lifting the ban on it. With other drugs that is a tough sell, but I recall pot being one of the top traded drugs by the cartel so killing that black market could have a crippling effect.

    • whatever, the Clintons and other Clintonistas have made mucho grana off of this so-called ‘War on Drugs’ it’ll never end, just like the ephemeral ‘War on Terror’ will never end because it give the politicians such an increased position.

    • Oh GOD, yes! But how can tyranny escalate into house-to-house warfare if we legalize things? NO! MORE LAWS. Troops in the streets. Every street. THAT’S the goal.

      • There’s simply not enough manpower in the military and police in this country to put troops in every street. Not saying they will, but if they tried the troops would be so thinly spread as to be next to useless.

        • jwm,

          That isn’t how thugs roll. They don’t try to have thugs on every street. Rather, they show up in overwhelming numbers at a later time if someone is “out of line”.

          Say for example that a local thug tries to shake you down and you promptly shoot him. You just won the battle, right? Of course. And then you will die when 20 of the thug’s associates show up later after they find out who shot him.

          Nevertheless, this is what must happen. Because when those 20 associates show up to kill you, you hopefully take out at least two or three of them with you. And now there are only 17 or 18 thugs left. And after their next visit to another armed good person, there are only 14 or 15 thugs left. And after that, only 10 or 11 … at which point the thugs decide to do something else because too many of them are dying.

          There is no getting around it. People will die because of thugs. All we can do is minimize how many people die. And that requires that good people take down as many thugs as possible. The alternative, if good people are not willing to die protecting their families and community: thugs will rape, pillage, and plunder which involves killing good people anyway. Better to die resisting evil than to be slaughtered defenseless for the entertainment of evil people.

    • “Try” hell. These people would be out of business in a week if they had to compete with the American farmer. Freedom is the answer. Stop the war on drugs and the drug warlords are finished.

      • “These people would be out of business in a week if they had to compete with the American farmer”

        Yeah, busy mostly because the American TAXPAYER wouldn’t be subsidizing the Mexican farmer.

        • If that’s a shot at farm subsidies, I’m with you. End them now.

          But if you look at it in terms of economics, we are subsidizing the Mexican drug growers and cartels right now. Our billion dollar war on drugs acts as a price support–the mechanism is different but the effect is no different than minimum crop price laws or government purchase of crops. The drug trade is uber profitable BECAUSE of the war and drugs, not in spite of it.

          We are responsible for the violence in Mexico. Obongo’s apology tour should have started and ended there.

  3. Mexico have decriminalized ALL drugs if it’s for ‘personal’ use. So this is what they get, gangs fighting over market share.

    • Mexicans legalized drugs for personal possession after, not before, the country became awash in the blood of innocents and low-level traffickers. The army still insists on shutting down village self-defense forces, only to let cartels brutalize and extort the townspeople. Self-protecting armed villagers can not only stop cartel assaults, but also the heavy hand of graft and extortion that the politicians long have wielded.

    • I see your point; by making the laws even more restrictive, and imprisoning more here and in Mexico, we can get a grip on drugs and crime!!

      I nominate you for Obama’s next drug caesar.

    • They’re not fighting over market shares in Mexico. By getting the towns and government in Mexico in line or at least cowed they clear the way for unimpeded access to their main market. The US. The drugs sold here by the cartels are what finance it all.

      • Exactly so. The illegal drug market finances a good bit of our jihadist enemies as well.

        It is very hard to move to legalization when so many powerful groups benefit from keeping the drugs illegal.

        The police benefit, the drug cartels benefit, those who want more state control benefit, corrupt government officials benefit.

        It is only everyone else that pays, and pays, and pays.

        We had legal opium for a long, long, time. Yes, there were addicts, but most of them figured out a way to live without being a heavy burden on society.

      • And let’s not forget the fact that the Sinaloa Cartel considers Chicago its distribution core in the US. Perhaps Valerie Jarett has the answer to the mess? Rahm? The President? Our country is being run by a bunch of folks who couldn’t keep their own city from running off the rails. Remarkable times I live in.

  4. Wait, the article said that those dead guys had signs that this is what will happen to rapists, murderers, dealers, etc. Were the guys killed innocents, rival cartel members, random hoods? Borderbeat’s article doesn’t jive with the TTAG post, or perhaps I’m missing something.

  5. This one strikes a particular note with me. Per capita, Puerto Rico has a higher murder rate than Mexico (around 30/100K residents according to the FBI for 2011). And we are talking about american citizens here. Puerto Rico gun law reads like a laundry list of the worst attributes of the inane laws of NY, CA, CT & MD. Registration of all guns and ammo purchase limits. May issue approach to the issuing of the licences (and if one neighbor dislikes you, you are pretty much kiboshed). The only ammo you can buy is for your registered gun caliber. You have to present 3 witnesses sworn to confirm that you are not a threat to society. And then, there’s the fees that mount to over $1,200. And you can only carry concealed. Don’t get me started on the self defense statutes (duty to retreat). All this has accomplished is to reduce legal gun ownership for the well connected political class and the rich people only. If you are poor, or even middle class… Good luck. Obviously, all this burdens have not done absolutely nothing to curb the violence problem. And I got to hear the same tired arguments when it was proposed to loosen up the regulations (the federal constitution still applies there due to the political relation between the island and the mainland), you know-blood in the streets. HELLO?! 1130 murdered in a state roughly the size of Rhode Island and 3.7 million habitants is already a bloodbath. Now I have made Texas my home and I love this state dearly as much as if I had been born here. Having rights and freedoms when you have grown up having none, makes you appreciate them in a special way.

  6. “They have increased kidnappings, abductions, murders, and user fees are widespread.”

    Those ATM user fees are out of control!” “They have increased kidnappings, abductions, murders, and user fees are widespread.

  7. My grandfather used to say that Santa Anna should’ve sold all of Mexico to the US. At the time, I didn’t know what he meant. Later I learned, and I considered him a malinchista (Mexican who favors other countries over their own). But now, I sort of see his point.

  8. The MSM ignores Mexican gun violence because they assume it’s all drug related (which it probably is). That being said, there is no “quid pro quo” when reporting gun violence in this country, even though it is overwhelmingly gang/drug related.

  9. Is that the promise that Obama gives to illegals coming to America? This will not happen to you here. He is taking away all the freedoms that makes us safe here. He opens the doors so anyone even the cartels can walk right in. The one thing the Constitution our government is trying so hard to destroy does not give you is a right to be “Safe”. Think about it!

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