On October 1, 2015, Silvano Aureoles Conejo took office as governor of Michoacán. The state had already been experiencing a war between criminal groups for more than 9 years. However, under his administration, the conflict intensified and left two organizations as the big winners: Los Viagras and the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel (CJNG).
During the first months of his mandate (February 2016), the federal government put an end to the Michoacán self-defense project after several complaints regarding the infiltration of criminal groups in them. Salvador Cienfuegos, former Secretary of Defense, and Silvano Aureoles were present at the official announcement, stating that although at the time the participation of civilians was necessary to stop crime, “now in Michoacán the law will be enforced.”
Things did not happen as the former governor promised. After the dismantling of the self-defense groups, created to fight the Knights Templar, some of the civilians who took up arms and fought alongside federal forces decided to lead their own criminal organizations.
Nicolás Sierra Santana, alias El Gordo, was among the members of the G-250, an elite corps of the Rural Force formed by order of Alfredo Castillo Cervantes, commissioned by Enrique Peña Nieto for the creation of the self-defense groups. Today, 9 years later, Sierra Santana is the leader of Los Viagras, one of the most powerful cartels in Michoacán and the main one accused of extorting lemon and avocado growers.
The CJNG war for Michoacán
It was also during the six-year term of Silvano Aureoles when the CJNG intensified its war to take over the Tierra Caliente of Michoacán. The self-defense groups were no longer there, but the criminal groups that broke away from them formed the United Cartels that brought together Los Viagras, Los Blancos de Troya, the Tepalcatepec Cartel, Los Correa, Los Reyes, Los Caballeros Templarios, the Zicuirán Cartel and La Familia Michoacana, among others.
“El Abuelo (Juan José Álvarez Farías, former self-defense force and leader of the Tepalcatepec Cartel) wants to get people to defend him (…) they tell people that the CJNG is coming to attack the people, but they are fights with local groups that fight for drug trafficking routes,” declared Silvano Aureoles in September 2019 to deny the presence of the CJNG in Michoacán.
Despite denying it, the CJNG attacked rival groups based in Buenavista, Tepalcatepec, Apatzingán, Coalcomán, Aquila and Aguililla, forming alliances with several local cartels such as Tepalcatepec and Los Viagras at different times.
Once Silvano Aureoles left office (September 30, 2021), former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and the new governor of Michoacán, Alfredo Ramírez Bedolla, ordered the deployment of 4,402 elements of the Mexican Army, 4,990 of the National Guard and 7,500 police officers in different areas of the state to try to stop the advance of the CJNG through the state.
Silvano Aureoles and the drug traffickers of Michoacán
Months before his administration ended, Silvano Aureoles stated that “Morena won the elections in Michoacán thanks to the help of the drug traffickers”; he added that with Ramírez Bedolla a narco-government would be reestablished and stressed that López Obrador was aware of this but “does not want to get involved in the issue because he needs them as allies.”
Against him, Father Goyo (Gregorio López Gerónimo), former leader of the Apatzingán self-defense forces, pointed out that the narco-state was created with the complacency of Silvano Aureoles and his closeness to César Sepúlveda Arellano, alias El Botox, a criminal arrested in 2018 and released in 2020, today leader of Los Blancos de Troya, allies of Los Viagra and the CJNG.
Only in November 2024 were images released of the tactical equipment used by the Limones Special Forces, the alliance between the CJNG and Los Viagras to extort producers in the region: “Good things are coming for the region, peace is coming,” announced the cartels that Silvano Aureoles allowed to empower in his 6 years as governor.
Source: infobae
