José Manuel Mireles Valverde
| José Manuel Mireles Valverde | |
|---|---|
| Born |
24 October 1958 Michoacán, Mexico |
| Other names | Doctor Mireles |
| Occupation | Medical surgeon Former Autodefensa leader |
| Criminal charge | Detained for violating Mexico's Federal Law of Firearms and Explosives |
| Criminal penalty | In process |
| Criminal status | On parole, awaiting trial |
| Spouse(s) | Ana Valencia Chavez (Divorced) |
| Allegiance | paramilitary self-defense groups |
| Conviction(s) | Violating Mexico's Federal Law of Firearms and Explosives |
José Manuel Mireles Valverde (born 24 October 1958) is a Mexican medical doctor and former leader and founder of the paramilitary self-defense groups that fought against the Knights Templar Cartel and other cartels, in the state of Michoacan and others, in México. Mireles emerged as an important figure within the self-defense militias during the fall of 2013 as self-defense groups were fighting against the Knights Templar Cartel in Apatzingán, Tepalcatepec, and other municipalities on the Michoacán coast. He describes his motivation to participate in the armed self-defense groups as stemming from the abuse of the Knights Templar Cartel against himself and his family – he has himself been kidnapped by the cartel, which has also murdered several of his family members causing him to take up arms in defense of his community of Tepalcatepec.
Some media outlets state that in 1988 he served time in prison for allegedly producing marijuana, which Mireles has denied stating his imprisonment was for practicing medicine in Michoacán without an active state license.
He traveled to the US where he worked as a social activist. Upon his return, he started some political work and ran for the Mexican Senate in 2006.
Mireles states he joined the self-defense group to protect his family against the Knights Templar Cartel, after he was kidnapped by the cartel which demanded money to release him, and also had murdered several of his relatives.
On 4 January 2014, Mireles was injured in a plane crash as he was traveling to the community of Zicuiran.
Two weeks later the Mexican Government initiated efforts to control the escalating violence in Michoacán by deploying the Army against both the cartels and the self-defense militias.
Initially, a video of a badly wounded Mireles was published in which he urged the self-defense groups to lay down their arms and cooperate with the Army. But subsequently he appeared in a different video in which he stated that the self-defense groups would lay down their arms, but not until the Army had taken steps to secure their safety by curbing the activities of the Knights Templar Cartel, including the capture and/or death of the cartel's top leaders: Servando Gómez Martínez (alias "La Tuta"); Nazario Moreno González (alias "El Chayo"); Enrique Plancarte Solís (alias "El Kike"); Dionicio Loya Plancarte (alias "Tío Nacho"), among others.
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