'True Mexican Hero?' Founder of Mexico's Vigilante Movement Under Fire Tim Johnson - McClatchy
go to original May 24, 2014

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TEPALCATEPEC - As a founder of a citizens’ movement to take action against organized crime in Mexico’s Michoacan state, Dr. Jose Manuel Mireles has evolved from small-town hero to national political figure.

Supporters post videos hailing him on YouTube. Politicians court him. A nascent movement wants to take his armed vigilante group nationwide.

But ask Dr. Mireles how things are going and he says simply, “Very badly. Very badly.” All is not well for the physician, who spent nearly a decade living in California’s Central Valley, mostly in Modesto, before returning to his home state.

Since taking the spotlight last year, Mireles has suffered a series of travails. His home life is a wreck, and his 27-year marriage seemingly over. His health has faltered from serious injuries when his small plane went down Jan. 4. He’s squabbling with some of his fellow vigilante leaders. Death threats are routine, and he moves around in an armored car. A security czar to President Enrique Peña Nieto suggests Mireles may have been involved in the killings of five men.

Still, Mireles is now widely known in Mexico, and he’s admired for launching a movement that encouraged citizens – fed up with corrupt police, feckless politicians, and gangsters run amok – to take matters into their own hands.

Read the rest at The Christian Science Monitor

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