High-Profile Rebel Leader Trying to Avoid Cartel Ambush When Plane Crashed Deborah Hastings - New York Daily News
go to original January 9, 2014

Dr. Jose Manuel Mireles, the leader of the Self-Protection Police of Tepalcatepec in Mexico’s Michoacan state, shown here in December. The rebel leader was seriously injured when his small plane crashed. (Omar Torres/AFP/Getty Images)

A mid-flight cellphone call warned one of Mexico's most famous rebel leaders that cartel thugs were waiting for his plane to land at an airport in western Michoacan, a source tells the Daily News.

To avoid the gunmen, the single-engine plane changed course. But the aircraft crashed on a rural strip outside the town of La Huanca, its original destination, killing the pilot and seriously injuring outspoken Dr. Jose Manuel Mireles, a beloved and well-known leader of local citizens who've taken up arms to drive out the Knights Templar crime syndicate.

There are conflicting reports from militia members as to whether shots were fired Sunday at Mireles' plane, which carried one woman and four men, including pilot Carlos Eduardo Farias, the source said.

The group had left the doctor's hometown of Tepalcatepec and was headed southeast to La Huanca, where rebels had recently driven out Knights Templar members, according to the source.

Read the rest at NYDailyNews.com

We invite you to add your charity or supporting organizations' news stories and coming events to PVAngels so we can share them with the world. Do it now!