Self-Defense Leader Charges His Alleged Criminal File is Attempt to Discredit Him Carmen Aristegui - CNN Mexico
go to original January 28, 2014

This photo taken in December, shows Dr. Jose Manuel Mireles, the leader of a self-defence group in Michoacan state, Mexico. (Omar Torres/AFP/Getty Images)

José Manuel Mireles, one of the leaders of the self-defense groups in the region of Tierra Caliente, Michoacán, said publication of his alleged criminal record is an attempt to discredit him "as if I were a politician."

"There are many ways to insult someone's image. What's bad is that they are using me as if I were a politician, but I'm not a politician. I have no fear of the press," Mireles said in an interview with journalist Carmen Aristegui.

On January 17, Excelsior [Mexican daily newspaper] cited court records according to which Mireles was allegedly arrested in 1988 for possession of 86 kilos of marijuana and sentenced to seven years in prison; and again in 1991 for crimes against health in the form of planting, growing, harvesting and possession of marijuana. He was supposedly released in 1992 after criminal authorities in Michoacán concluded that he showed "adequate rehabilitation."

In the interview, the leader of the self-defense group in Tepalcatepec said that "never" was he imprisoned for drug trafficking and dismissed the court file, "For me it's nothing more than a piece of paper with pictures and everything."

Read the rest at Mexico Voices

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