MORELIA, Mich.– The Michoacan municipality of Madero, located in the eastern part of the state, is reached by a road lined with tall, green, leafy coniferous pines that offer clean air and high-quality resin.

There, too, in the heart of the forest, an aggressive cell of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) has been based and operating for at least 10 years , led by a kingpin identified as “Sierra 1”, “Juan Parra” or “el Apá”, but who is fully identified by his first name, which is Ángel Herrera.

Environmentalists in Madero and the surrounding region are suffering threats, pressure, persecution, and murder ordered by “Sierra 1,” who has recently launched threats against these defenders, their families, and their property. The numerous complaints filed with the Environmental Crimes Prosecutor’s Office and the Michoacán Attorney General’s Office have not stopped him.

The latest attack occurred on the night of November 6 and in the early hours of the following day when the house of Javier Gómez was shot at first, and then the home of Guillermo Saucedo Gamiño; both environmentalists and members of the Ecological Committee of the Protected Natural Area Promotion Council of the municipality of Madero.

The attacks were carried out in the community of El Sangarro by a group of at least 10 men who are under the orders of Sierra 1, witnesses report.

The first attack occurred around 10:30 p.m. and was carried out by two armed young men who were aboard a dark gray Camaro car, from which they shot at the truck and the house of Javier Gómez, before fleeing towards the community of Etúcuaro.

During their escape, they shot at a truck carrying a couple, killing the woman inside and seriously injuring the driver, her husband, both residents of El Sangarro.

After 11 p.m. came the second shooting attack, this time from two trucks also identified with El Sierra 1 and the CJNG; in this incident they tried to enter Guillermo Saucedo’s home, presumably to kill him, but they did not find him because the environmentalist had already fled towards the hill.

Throughout the morning of November 6, witnesses say, a rumor circulated in the town that both Javier and Guillermo would be murdered that same day.

Following the attacks by the CJNG, members of another cartel that is disputing the territory approached the place and at the highway intersection that connects Etúcuaro with Madero, about 400 meters from Javier Gómez’s house, they crashed head-on into a truck that was left abandoned.

When the municipal police arrived several hours later, they found hand grenades, homemade explosive devices, bulletproof vests, and military tactical camping equipment inside the vehicle.

But there were also gasoline receipts and other documents and invoices in the name of the municipality of Madero.

The third shooting of that long November 7th was carried out at 00:30 hours, the criminals directed their fire towards the houses of the town looking for Javier Gómez and Guillermo Saucedo Gamiño; the latter had approached Javier’s house to find out if his companion survived the attack.

Amid the confusion and the fire, the environmental defenders managed to escape into the mountains and remained there until dawn on Friday, November 7.

“They don’t listen to me”

From the first attack, environmental activists called the mayor, Juan Carlos Gamiño, for help and begged him to urgently send the police to contain the attack.

The mayor’s response was blunt: “I can’t, they don’t listen to me,” he said, referring to the 12 officers under his command.

During two hours, between Thursday, November 6th and Friday, November 7th, at least three attacks occurred in Madero and between the communities of El Sangarro, Etúcuaro and the municipal seat of Villa Madero without the authorities intervening, even though the events took place less than five kilometers from the municipal presidency building.

The communities of El Capulín, La Soledadita, Etúcuaro, Rincón de la Eratzicuaro, El Sangarro, Loma del Saús, Maravillas, Moreno, Las Sidras and the municipal seat of Villa Madero itself have been under siege by organized crime for years, residents report.

Julio Santoyo Guerrero is a member of the State Council of Ecology of Michoacán and of the Promoting Council of Protected Natural Area in Madero, south of Morelia and Acuitzio del Canje, and an academic at the Michoacan University who has been threatened with death since 2015.

• Most environmentalists are threatened by organized crime because they spend their time denouncing water theft, illegal logging, avocado expansion, and land use changes in our regions without anyone lifting a finger.

The environmental defense committees, he explains in an interview, have been under threat since 2016, “but in 2022, during various patrols, we discovered countless clandestine water taps and filed the corresponding complaint with Conagua, which removed the illegal pumps. As a result, there was strong discontent among several landowners in the hills, and we filed several complaints with the Attorney General’s Office and the State Environmental Protection Agency.”

In 2022, environmentalists in Madero were shocked by the kidnapping of Guillermo Saucedo Gamiño, but thanks to public pressure, he was released hours later, but not before being warned to stop reporting.

A year and a half ago, environmentalists in this region decided to reduce their surveillance patrols in the forest and keep a low profile so as not to expose themselves and their families, but at the same time they saw how patrols with trucks and armed men grew, “as if sending the message of who is in charge.”

A person who asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals explained to Proceso that the pressure they are under is so intense that the armed men themselves “ask us to go see the CJNG plaza boss, “Juan Parra”, to put ourselves at his service. They asked all of us, but none of us accepted.”

History of violence

Beside the mountain road, still wet from the October rains, they found Modesto Gutiérrez’s body lying face down, eating dirt. The day before, on Wednesday, October 22, his family reported him missing after Modesto failed to arrive home at his usual time.

The dirt road where the ATV that Modesto used was found was abandoned on a road leading to the communities of El Duende and El Capulín, east of the municipality of Madero, a territory considered lawless and where criminal gangs keep the population under their control.

Even the mayor of Madero, Juan Carlos Gamiño, has disowned this territory, saying on one occasion that this place does not belong to his municipality and that is why he had not campaigned there, “where people do not even have voter registration cards.”

The operations carried out by the Civil Guard and the National Guard, few and fleeting, have had to repel the armed attacks of young hitmen who, despite the casualties, in their escape have ended up hiding in the most rugged and wooded areas of Madero, without the gangs being able to be dismantled so far.

The killers from these gangs are the same ones who executed the master mezcal maker Sergio Rangel Vieyra on May 22 of this year on the border of the municipalities of Morelia and Madero; and they are the same ones who were involved in a confrontation in the first days of May of this year, which, according to the locals, left more than six dead.

To date, there has been no progress in the investigation of the cases of either Modesto Gutiérrez or the mezcal producer Sergio Rangel.

Modesto Gutiérrez was a farm worker and father of seven, the youngest of whom was only eight years old. Like his father, Anselmo Gutiérrez, Modesto dedicated his entire life to the arduous work in the forest, scraping pine trees to extract resin and live off that income.

Michoacán is one of the main producers of pine resin in Mexico, with an average of 22,000 tons per year; and the resin tappers are considered guardians and protectors of the forests.

In most of the municipality of Madero, organized crime extorts resin tappers, avocado growers, and fruit farmers, but in the case of the resin tappers, they are extorted for up to 50% of their earnings. A kilo of resin currently fetches a little over 400 pesos.

Modesto was demanded to immediately hand over half a million pesos and a truck, and was warned that if he did not do so, they would take away his ranch and his cows, as they have done with other farmers.

He was only able to give them fifty thousand pesos, which made him a target for assassination.

“The sadism with which this criminal group acts involves torture such as the amputation of limbs and the pulling out of fingernails, among other atrocities, of which the government at its three levels is fully aware,” denounces Julio Santoyo.

For environmentalists in this region, however, the most serious issue and the greatest threat is the evident symbiosis between the municipal police and organized crime groups, “covered up” by the mayor of Madero, Juan Carlos Gamiño, activists denounce.

According to witnesses, on October 4th, at approximately 4:30 p.m., two pickup trucks carrying heavily armed men arrived at the municipal building as the municipal police dispersed. They remained there in a meeting with the mayor and left after about an hour.

The deaths of Modesto Gutiérrez and the mezcal producer Sergio are not isolated events; they are part of a context in which the breakdown in security matters is reaching most of the districts of Madero and other places in the state - Santoyo Guerrero laments.

The mayor himself has admitted to residents of various communities – activists say – that he cannot carry out public works because he would have to give money from the budget to criminals.

“The cartels now intend to impose themselves as accusers, judges, and executioners against the population that does not obey them, taking the place of the legally constituted authority,” says another environmentalist, who has had personal protection measures from the state prosecutor’s office since last week.

However, this has not been the case for the community members and farmers of Madero, Javier González and Guillermo Gamiño, who have not even been able to go to the Prosecutor’s Office in Morelia to file the corresponding complaint for the armed attack they suffered last week.

The state authority has provided them with protection through municipal police officers from Madero, which, they denounce, is neither reliable nor keeps them safe.

“In the coming days, we have a meeting scheduled with the environmental prosecutor who has shown interest in our case. We are hopeful,” says Santoyo Guerrero.

Since November 11, however, Julio Santoyo warns that new threats have begun circulating on Facebook and WhatsApp platforms with his photos and those of other figures such as the PRI state leader, Guillermo Valencia, as well as the lemon leader Bernardo Bravo and the mayor of Uruapan, Carlos Manzo, both recently murdered.