As if it were part of a macabre carnival caravan, the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel (CJNG) appeared in a video touring the streets of Aguililla, in Michoacan, presuming his fire power with two trucks modified from the wheels to the roof with iron plates as if they were homemade tanks. The vehicles, known as monsters, were displayed as a war trophy taken from Los Viagras, another local cartel. At the top of one of them, six men and a woman are exposed to the naked eye armed with AK-47 and R-15 rifles and bulletproof vests. From the top of the vehicle, they are identified as “pure Mencho people“(CJNG leader) boasting of having obtained” another little gift. “
The monster It was exhibited in broad daylight on the street next to a public square in the El Aguaje community, in the municipality of Aguililla, in Michoacán, according to local media. The video, released on Wednesday by the news portal Citizen report de Jalisco, portrays the level of tension and the firepower that criminal groups operating in northwestern Mexico have, on the border between Michoacán, Colima and Jalisco. The CJNG maintains an open war with other rival cartels such as the self-defense groups or Los Viagra.
For more than two years, drug trafficking groups have been fighting with blood and fire the 66 kilometers that Michoacán and Colima share with Jalisco. In recent months, attacks have intensified in the presence of the CJNG in the area of Tepalcatepec, the land of José Manuel Mireles, the well-known leader of the self-defense groups.
Just a week ago, on February 25, a drone recorded from the air 11 trucks with artisan armor, with the legend CJNG printed on the doors, arriving by dirt roads from communities such as Xilotlán, La Loma and Los Olivos in Jalisco . A few days earlier, on February 21, a battle took place in the area that lasted more than 12 hours. When the Army and the National Guard (GN) arrived at the scene, they found these modified trucks abandoned at the scene.
Local media point out that the CJNG is trying to capture Juan José Farías, alias Grandpa, leader of the groups that call themselves self-defense. In two previous attacks in August and in December in Tepalcatepec, nine deaths were recorded in battles lasting many hours. According to the Governor of Michoacán, Silvano Aureoles, the violence will continue in the coming days. The politician said that the self-defense groups are one more armed group on the fringes of the law. In a interview with EL PAÍS In 2014, Farías defended himself against those who accused him of being a drug trafficker.
Convinced that the objective of the CJNG is to eliminate El Abuelo, members of the self-defense groups explained to this newspaper in a report in 2019 they had decided to take up arms to protect themselves from criminal groups. In May 2020, the self-defense groups joined Los Viagras to form the criminal organization Cárteles Unidos de Michoacán. Explaining the war in his state, the governor confirmed that it is due to “permanent harassment by criminal cells that operate on the side of Jalisco, but who want to collect bills with some actors or characters from the municipality of Tepalcatepec.”
Violence in Michoacán is not new in the region, nor is the display of homemade tanks in its hot towns. Michoacán was one of the first places to export marijuana from Mexico thanks to its fertile land. However, in 2006 the situation got out of control and the state governor issued a call for help to President Felipe Calderón (2006-2012) in the face of the brutal violence imposed by Los Zetas, La Familia Michoacana and Los Caballeros Templarios. The president’s response was to deploy the Army and since then they have not returned to the barracks. Michoacán is a strategic region because it is a transit point for drugs and the control of the Lázaro Cárdenas port in the Pacific, an entry point for chemicals for synthetic drugs that has made the CJNG a millionaire. Two other ingredients spice up the pot: the money left by the gold mines and the cultivation of gold. avocado.
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