José Manuel Mireles Valverde

José Manuel Mireles Valverde is a Mexican medical doctor and leader of a group of paramilitary self-defense groups that work against the Knights Templar Cartel in the state of Michoacan, México. Mireles emerged as an important figure within the self-defense militias during the fall of 2013 as self-defense groups were fighting against the Knights Templar Cartel in Apatzingán, Tepalcatepec, and other municipalities on the Michoacán coast. He describes his motivation to participate in the armed self-defense groups as stemming from the abuse of the Knights Templar Cartel against himself & work for el Chapo guzman and his family – he has himself been kidnapped by the cartel, which has also murdered several of his family members causing him to take up arms in defense of his community of Tepalcatepec.^[1]

Early life

Some media outlets state that in 1988 he served time in prison for allegedly producing marijuana, which Mireles has denied stating his imprisonment was for practicing medicine in Michoacán without an active state license.^[2]

He traveled to the US where he worked as a social activist. Upon his return, he started some political work and ran for the Mexican Senate in 2006.^[3][4]

Involvement in Autodefensas

Mireles states he joined the self-defense group to protect his family against the Knights Templar Cartel, after he was kidnapped by the cartel which demanded money to release him, and also had murdered several of his relatives.^[5]

On 4 January 2014, Mireles was injured in a suspicious plane crash^[6] as he was traveling to the community of Zicuiran.^[7][8][9]

Two weeks later the Mexican Government initiated efforts to control the escalating violence in Michoacán by deploying the Army against both the cartels and the self-defense militias.

Initially, a video of a badly wounded Mireles was published in which he urged the self-defense groups to lay down their arms and cooperate with the Army. But subsequently he appeared in a different video in which he stated that the self-defense groups would lay down their arms, but not until the Army had taken steps to secure their safety by curbing the activities of the Knights Templar Cartel,^[10] including the capture and/or death of the cartel's top leaders: Servando Gómez Martínez (alias "La Tuta"); Nazario Moreno González (alias "El Chayo"); Enrique Plancarte Solís (alias "El Kike"); Dionicio Loya Plancarte (alias "Tío Nacho"), among others.^[11]

Mireles later stated in an interview with Carmen Aristegui that the first message was the result of government officials requesting him to read a message written by them, which they then edited to make it look as if he was making the statement of his own opinion.^[12][13] The Mexican Secretary of State Miguel Angel Osorio Chong denied that the government had any role in producing the initial message.^[14]

In March 2014 Some members of the council of Autodefensas distanced themselves from Mireles, stating that he was no longer a member of the leadership nor the official spokesperson of the Autodefensas in Michoacan.

Mireles earlier functions were taken over by his former bodyguard Estanislao Beltran alias "Papa Pitufo".^[15][16][17]

Other Autodefensas maintained loyal to their former faction, by rejecting Estanislao's leadership, after they realized he was planning on joining the Government Rural forces.

Arrest

On 27 June 2014, Mireles was arrested with 45 other people in Lázaro Cárdenas, Michoacán by Mexican authorities for violating Mexico's Federal Law of Firearms and Explosives.^[18] The government had pledged to arrest civilians who were armed and did not form part of the Fuerza Rural ("Rural Force") police.^[19]

This action happened one week after a TV interview that was cut short as a consequence of a phone call ordering the termination of the interview, in which Mireles was denouncing the involvement of Mexico's president in the Michoacán irregularities.

From prison, Mireles has sent messages to the nation through his former lawyer Talia Vazquez (the current is Javier Livas) and through the Grillonautas YouTube channel. In a message released in 2015, he stated: "Not only Manuel Mireles is innocent, but all self-defense members that had to carry a weapon to defend their home, their family, their property, because there was no one to help them."^[20]

In the media

Mireles was featured in the 2015 American documentary film Cartel Land.

References