Imprisoned Jose Mireles Apologizes for Creating Michoacan Self-Defense Groups Proceso
go to original January 13, 2016

José Manuel Mireles Valverde (Excelsior)

José Manuel Mireles Valverde, former leader of self-defense groups in Michoacán, apologized to the government and to his family "for having lacked respect for their their words and their actions."

On Friday afternoon, January 8, the audio was posted on the Facebook page of his sister, Dr. Virginia Mireles Valverde, also a medical doctor. Titled "Pardon and Thank-you," the former self-defense leader apologized for having abused "liberal thought and for having altered the political and social order of Michoacán and of Mexico."

In the message, recorded in the new year by his family members, Mireles apologizes "for the interpretation of the Constitution, because I don't know how to read or write, I only know how to spell."

Mireles also asks for the release of self-defense members whose only mistake, he adds, was trying to solve a problem for which the government is responsible.

Since June 2014 Mireles has been imprisoned in Federal Prison 12 in Hermosillo, Sonora, for having taken up arms against organized crime groups. He was arrested on June 27, 2014, on the Pacific Coast while leading self-defense groups in Michoacán's Coastal, Sierra [mountainous] and Tierra Caliente [Hot Land, just inland] regions.

Read the rest at Mexico Voices

Related: Michoacán Ombudsman Advocates for José Mireles's Release (Mexico Voices)

Mexico Voices is a blogging endeavor aimed at raising the awareness of U.S. citizens regarding the destructive impact of the U.S. economic policy and the War on Drugs on Mexico — on its people, their economic and physical security and their human rights, on the nation’s dysfunctional justice system, and on the rule of law and Mexico’s fragile democracy. Visit the website at MexicoVoices.blogspot.mx

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