Three members of the Communal Guard of the Nahua indigenous community of Santa María Ostula and of the Community Guard of the Municipality of Aquila, in Michoacán, community members Isaul Nemecio Zambrano, Miguel Estrada Reyes and Rolando Mauno Zambrano, were murdered on Thursday (12) at a surveillance point near the municipal capital of Aquila by a commando of approximately 20 hit men from the Jalisco Cartel – New Generation (CJNG), the community reported in a communiqué.
The gunmen “riddled our comrades with bullets, recording several videos in which they showed off their cruelty and their membership in the cartel.
They relate the “complicity of the federal and state governments with the criminal cartels”. On October 4, 2022, they made public knowledge that since September 29, 2022 “the CJNG took control of the municipal capital of Chinicuila and displaced people and families with the purpose of exploiting the mines of this municipality, occurring a few days before the National Guard occupied this town, disarmed and dismantled its Communal Guard, arrested two of its elements and completely took over the town. The result: currently Chinicuila is a sepulchral place in the hands of the delinquency due to the passive presence of the federal security forces”.
They denounce that the murders are not a “fortuitous or casual event”. The community members were at a surveillance point to keep at bay “the delinquency that, from Colima and Chinicuila, has the municipalities of Aquila and Coahuayana surrounded”.
History of threats
Between 2009 and 2014 Santa Maria Ostula suffered a “fatal onslaught by organized crime in complicity with the governments in office, highlighting the collusion between the Mexican Navy and the Knights Templar cartel.”
The situation led to 34 murders and 6 forced disappearances of agrarian authorities and community leaders, as well as the murder of the child Hidilberto Reyes García by the 65th Infantry Battalion of the Mexican Army, which was expertly proven by the National Human Rights Commission.
Self-determination
The community states that the communal guard of Santa María Ostula, together with the self-defense groups and communal guards of Aquila and Coahuayana, will reinforce the “actions to combat and end the presence of organized crime throughout the region”.
They demand the “dismantling of the CJNG and the cessation of the protection given to this cartel by corrupt officials and military commanders” and the “respect and granting of guarantees for the functioning of our communal guide and for the exercise of our self-determination and autonomy.”
Disappearance
At press time, the forced disappearance of human rights lawyer Ricardo Arturo Lagunes Gasca and professor Antonio Díaz Valencia, leader of the indigenous community of Aquila, Michoacán, was reported.
According to an urgent alert, Lagunes Gasca is currently carrying out legal accompaniment in the indigenous community of Aquila, where there is a large mining activity that is generating great impacts in the area.
On the day of their disappearance, Sunday (15), Lagunes and Diaz had just left an assembly in the communal auditorium of Aquila and then moved towards the capital of Colima, communicating for the last time at the Coahuayana bridge, in the state of Michoacan at 18:50.
Both were traveling in a pickup truck that was found the same Sunday. The vehicle had bullet impacts, but no one was found in the vehicle. Therefore, it is presumed that Professor Valencia and the defender Ricardo Lagunes were deprived of their freedom by unknown persons, a situation that puts their physical integrity and their lives at serious risk.