Control Machete, Ileso

“to build citizenship, especially among lower-income people, so that they understand that the money siphoned off by corruption affects the attention that the state gives to their needs.” [Stop Stealing | The Economist]

To talk about cartels is one thing, to talk about Autodefensas (or self-defense) groups is another, but to talk about Autodefensas groups against corruption seems like an entirely different thing.

Back in 2014, vigilante groups in Mochoacán started organising because they were tired of the cartels stealing from their shops, kidnapping their families, and killing their women as they raided their land. That is how names like Semeí Verdía, Nestora Salgado and Dr. Mireles rose amongst anonymity to become real forces against the cartels, these were stories about the government asking the people to help them cleanse the states, empowering them with guns and trucks and just as soon as these people took a small breath of freedom, the government made pacts with the new orders of the cartels and dismantled the Autodefensas groups by making these last illegal and incarcerating their leaders.

This year appeared IRIS (Insurgency for Institutional and Social Rescue), a new group that clarifies:
"...we're not a cartel, we're not terrorists, we are the tired people of these lands [...] we're getting organised and we're not the only people that think that our country is sick and the people shouldn't be afraid of the government, it is the government the one that should be afraid of the people [...] all we need is a span, and that's what we want to be, that spark [...] This is an social insurgency battle. [...] We are entrepreneurs, cattle ranchers, people that are well established and by no means need to be here [...] There's nothing wrong with being rich but what is fucking wrong, an insult is to become rich through the work of the poor. [...]  Everyone steals [...] with what moral standards can the president ask a governor to behave correctly if he also steals? [...]  

IRIS also states, they are not the only group getting organised, he mentions Guanajuato, (the Columna Armada Gral. Pedro Mendez in) Tamaulipas [now allegedly a criminal group working for the Gulf cartel] and Puebla to mention some.

In a Facebook post from the Irapuato with Autodefensa Valour group, the Commander P.S., asks for volunteers that want to join the ranks of the Autodefensa group. In just 5 days they gathered 1,652 people for the movement.

It's really hard to look at some of the other posts in this group. It's a complicated chessboard of wins and losses for the delinquent groups or the vigilantes. Some of them are about people that are kidnapped or missing, some about people closing streets and yelling at the army, asking them why is it they are trying to take away the little they have achieved with their working hands and sweat, to the fact new governor of Michoacán, Silviano Aureoles in theory has promised to get rid of the delinquents and instead they are harassing and killing the farmers in some lone part of Michoacán.

There are also posts about dead delinquents with really harsh phrases: "Look at this pig, we almost managed to kill him as the bug that he is but if we did that, the police would accuse us of being the delinquents, so we rather forget all about it".

"Let's exterminate them as the plague they are" comments Valiant del Toro. One Like.

One thing is for sure, brutalisation prevails. Either by the working hands of the people or the stinky ones from the cartels managed by corrupt government: Mexicans are dying and my worst fear is, these movements can begin to fragment our towns, our people instead of uniting them. A War Against Corruption seems as naive as the one against Drugs.