Immigrants in US Sending Money Home to Fight Mexican Drug Cartels Alfredo Corchado - The Dallas Morning News
go to original March 1, 2014

A boy helps his father arrange weapons at a checkpoint set up by the Self-Defense Council of Michoacán in Tancitaro, Mexico. Immigrants in the U.S. are helping the self-defense groups stand up to the cartels. (Felix Marquez/The Associated Press)

The punishing wave of violence and uncertainty that has swept Mexico’s central state of Michoacán is generating much-needed financial help for the self-defense groups that have sprung up in response, and it’s coming from immigrants abroad.

Dallas businessman Roberto Chavarría is among those sending help. Sitting at a hotel in downtown Dallas, he described his options matter of factly.

“Many immigrants like myself have dreamed of this moment, when our people say, ‘Enough,’ and fight back, so the challenge is for us to help in the best way possible,” he said. “I either stand on the sidelines and watch from afar, or I get involved."

The Mexican diaspora, especially from Michoacán, is increasingly playing an integral role in raising money, via charities or through social media, to support the citizen militia movement spreading over the lowlands of western Michoacán known as Tierra Caliente, or Hot Land, to more than 20 towns.

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