Michoacán Militias Oust Spokesman, Leader Dr. José Manuel Mireles After Message To Enrique Peña Nieto

A general council of militias in the Mexican state of Michoacán said on Wednesday they had voted to oust leader, spokesman and most visible member José Manuel Mireles. The move comes shortly after the release of a YouTube video in which Mireles requested Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto establish a direct line of communication with him – bypassing state and federal commissioners -- regarding public security and the fight against drug cartels in the state. Council members told El Universal that the doctor and former Red Cross worker in California “affects the movement with his declarations and violates the rules established by this body”.

Mireles will be replaced by Estanislao Beltrán -- also known as "Papa Pitufo", or Papa Smurf -- also a spokesman for the council. Beltrán told the paper that militia members representing groups from at least 38 municipalities from the state had turned up to a meeting at which more than 30 ultimately voted to oust Mireles. He went on to suggest that a recent plane crash in which the former leader nearly lost his life had affected his judgment, saying that “since the accident, he hasn’t been coherent in his statements.”

Relations have remained shaky between the Mexican government and the militias, who have often accused the federal government of lacking commitment to clamping down on drug cartel influence in the state. In the YouTube communique, Mireles voiced disdain for security commissioners with whom the council has hashed out an accord by which militias register their weapons and undergo training to form a temporary rural defense corps. “Your commissioners take a photo with us and go off with it to you saying everything’s peaceful,” he said. “We want to give you our points of view on the meetings that we have with your commissioners, independent of what they inform you. We want you to analyze what the people tell you and what the commissioner tells you.”