War Between CJNG and Autodefenses Escalates

La Silla Rota toured the area affected by the CJNG criminal onslaught and accompanied the self-defense groups that have been containing the narco with its surveillance.

People alive, Criminals killed:
This August 30th will be the one year since an armed group, in the service of the CJNG, attacked for the first time the inhabitants of Tepalcatepec. The failure of the CJNG, on that occasion, cost Mencho the deaths of nine of his hitmen and 11 more were injured, at the hands of the Municipal Police, state and the local people.

From that moment on, CJNG’s attempts to seize control of that municipality grew and in recent times the stalking has increased, without it having been successful.

In the cockpit of a van, two hip-hop songs that a couple of singers composed to extol the work of community self-defense are heard over and over again.

“Here we are old, we will stand firm, even if we do not have the support of the government as it should and all because they call us criminals, just because we defend what costs us so much”,  are some phrases from the first piece of music.

The father of four had to leave his cows and the field full-time to lift his AK-47 rifle, better known as ” Goat Horn “, ie Cuerno de Chivo, in the  Tierra Caliente region, which has been hit hard by being in the last two CJNG attacks and he says containing and repelling these criminal attacks is very complicated, psychologically.

“Well, yes, it is complicated to live between bullets and such dangers, but we arm ourselves with courage because we must defend our pueblo.”                                 

Human Strength:

On the other hand, surveillance and self-defense groups extended to each border of the municipalities of Jilotlán  and Tecalitlán, Jalisco. At these two points, the caravans of the so-called elite CJNG group have boasted their numerical and weaponly might, in addition to their  armored vehicles. Local, state and federal forces focus on only a few points and that has led to other attacks by “Mencho’s people”; so the villagers must take care of the whole municipality.

Among the armor, there were more containers with that material, as well as high-power rifles used by hitmen in the most recent attack on settlers and authorities. However, Tepalcatepec’s own armor has forced the criminal group to put heavy machinery on the side on which it operates, to connect gaps for new access routes.

One of those sections that the CJNG connected was from Los Chapilis  to Las Enramadas, from the municipality of Coalcomán and these with the community Tres Hermanos de Tecalitlán, Jalisco .                                            .

So, the borders of Tepalcatepec,  have witnessed the bloody war that the CJNG, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel , has declared on the towns of that municipality. However, the inhabitants have not only left their activities and sheltered their families, but also, defiantly, warn that no one “will come to harm our people again.”