In addition to violence, Aguililla is an area of darkness, since the homicide figures do not appear officially in the database of the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System, which only go up to 2019, while those of the Inegi date back to 2020; even in 2022 there is no record of homicides, despite the fact that week after week violent confrontations with death tolls are reported in the press.
Security specialists consulted by Political Expansion They agree that there is an institutional weakening that has allowed organized crime to enter the municipal sphere, resulting in events such as those in Aguililla, San José de Gracia or Uruapan.
At the end of February, a commando broke into a home in the municipality of San José de Gracia where a wake was being held and took out 17 people, whom he allegedly executed on public roads and in broad daylight, and then took the bodies and cleaned the crime scene. A few days later, various armed attacks were recorded in Uruapan, leaving five people murdered.
“Aguililla is a sign that organized crime is there, more active than ever, has not retreated, and is not going to stop in the short term. Events like this (the murder of the mayor and his adviser) show us that the Organized crime has a real force, a power and a volume of fire greater than or similar to that of the security forces,” says Ramón Celaya, a specialist in Intelligence, Security and the Armed Forces.
David Saucedo, a security consultant and political analyst, states that the municipal authorities are targeted by the cartels because it is important for them to have control in order to operate freely. “And the municipal authorities, having been in contact with some criminal organization, become the main target of the attacks,” he mentions.
“Aguililla is part of a phenomenon of organized violence. It is the expression of the territorial struggle of more than a decade in Mexico. It is not recent history, it is an endemic problem against municipal authorities,” says Arturo Alvarado, professor and researcher at the College of Mexico (Colmex).
What happens in Eagle?
Aguililla is a municipality located in southwestern Michoacan and its main economic activities are agriculture and livestock.
In 2020, the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi) registered it with 14,754 inhabitants, a demographic that decreased 9% compared to 2010, when there were 16,214 people. Today, the statistics may be lower, since the presence of criminal groups has displaced some 3,000 residents, as the state government recognized in December 2021.
Coneval places Aguililla in a situation of “moderate” poverty, with 51% of the population in that condition, and close to 20% in extreme poverty.
