“If in these days the governor does nothing to do us justice and to get these people out of here, we are going to summon the people, we are going to seize the weapons, I assure you that we are going to seize them,” cried Guadalupe Mora Chávez, the brother minor of the deceased, who assured that there had been many who had approached him to offer support if the fight began again.
After the self-defense groups resisted alone for months, the Mexican military finally arrived to help them, but their relationship with the civilians was full of chiaroscuro. Mora was even briefly imprisoned by the government. Later, he unsuccessfully aspired to deputy and governor.
He did not stop speaking up for his people or denouncing criminal groups while taking care of his lemon orchards.
His younger brother blamed the murder on another local cartel that terrorizes the area. “The cartel that is here, which are the Viagras, were the ones that killed him.”
Mora Chávez said Friday that he had seen armed men in La Ruana the day before and that he called his brother to warn him. His sister told him that he knew about it.
According to what he said, he lives next to an army and National Guard base, so he went up to the roof of his house to look beyond the wall of the barracks. It was deserted.
The soldiers had left the base early Thursday and did not arrive at the scene until after the attack. Mora Chávez does not believe it was a coincidence.
“They left an agreement with them (the attackers) so that they would go in to kill him, the confrontation took about an hour and they never arrived, they arrived when they were dead,” he said.
Federal forces in La Ruana had fought to keep the violent Jalisco Nueva Generación cartel from entering the area, but they did nothing against the Viagras, who extort money from locals and charge for everything from tortillas to soft drinks and beer, suffocating local businesses, denounced the brother.
Now, he said, “they have to remember him as a leader, a leader who fought for his people, but unfortunately this government did not support him.”
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador condemned the attack and denied any involvement of the Army in it. As he explained, the governor of Michoacán, Alfredo Ramírez Bedolla — of his own party — had asked Mora to leave La Ruana for his own safety, but he refused.
In the state capital, David Cevallos, another of the assassin’s collaborators, read a posthumous message that Mora himself dictated to them in case something ever happened to him: “I said it many times, I knew this day would come. I said it, I’m going to die fighting.”
The message called on politicians and the government to “look at the citizens before their campaigns or their pockets.”
And he concluded with an appeal to the courage of his people: “May my death not be in vain and that both my family, my friends, my faithful followers do what they have to do so that the fight that I started continues to be for a cause.” fair for the citizens.
Meanwhile, in La Ruana, small groups of people, perhaps 50 in all, gathered quietly on the dirt road in front of the house where Mora’s coffin lay, surrounded by candles and religious images.
Many of those present – some of whom participated alongside Mora in the 2013 uprising – spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing the criminals they said were still in the area. Mora’s brother regretted that fear had prevented more people from coming to pay their respects.
A relative sighed heavily when asked if the years-long fight to oust the cartels had been worth it. His conclusion is that they were worse.
López Obrador said that Mora’s assassination was very regrettable but attributed it to his predecessors. And he repeated how former President Felipe Calderón launched the failed war against drug trafficking from the same state of Michoacán and provoked the violence that continues today. “This is a remnant of the violence that was sponsored and allowed by the government.”
Mora’s brother accused the governor of being with the Viagras. “He is well involved with them, because my brother told me so,” he stressed. “Those who govern here are supporting organized crime.”
A short distance from where Mora died, there was nothing left but a charred patch of dirt on the dirt road, the remains of a tire, someone’s glasses and broken glass. The windows of a house that overlooked the site were completely smashed.
There was no visible presence of the National Guard, soldiers or police.
A terrified witness to Thursday’s attack said it had been an ambush, that while under attack Mora got out of his armored SUV and returned fire. After killing him, the attackers set fire to his vehicle and began to shout in celebration.
One video showed the gunmen firing from inside a white truck with what appeared to be wooden slats around the bed. In the recording, shots from a large-caliber weapon thundered, followed by rapid fire from a machine gun.
A retired packer resignedly reproached what happened while having lunch with his wife at a local restaurant. According to the man, Mora answered for the town. And now, he wondered, there is no telling who will watch over them.
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Fernanda Pesce contributed to this report; Associated Press writer Christopher Sherman contributed from Mexico City.
FUENTE: Associated Press
