Aguililla, Michoacán.- The trip starts hot. The lemon orchards begin to appear on the horizon, while the decrease in vehicles circulating towards Aguililla from the municipality of Apatzingán, Michoacán; barely a private truck can be seen passing by after 20 minutes of traveling.
The mountains welcome the early hours of the morning and a stable smell enters through the window, when more than a dozen cows and oxen burst onto the road with no owner in sight.
Kilometers ahead, there are sacks of dirt and sand, which were used as barricades by members of criminal cells to guard the passage to the communities of Aguililla, land that saw the birth of one of the most wanted drug lords in Mexico and the United States, Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes. , better known as “El Mencho”, leader of the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel (CJNG).
In the more than 80 kilometers of travel to Aguililla, there are no gas stations available, at most one or another dealer with gallons of fuel for sale that are loaded in an old truck strategically parked under a tree in the region to cover themselves from the sun.
The dispute between the CJNG and the United Cartels made hundreds of families decide to flee after open clashes between the criminal groups.
Those who stayed walk daily through the streets and houses of a ghost town.
The criminals who guarded the roads, in at least four barricades towards Aguililla, left. It is not yet known for sure where, but in his place hundreds of soldiers from the Mexican Army and the National Guard stayed, who have been in charge of monitoring the area for two weeks, after the death of Miguel Ángel Fernández was announced. alias the “M2” and regional head of the CJNG.
Since then, members of the armed forces have protected the place, occupying schools, squares and roads to prevent organized crime from arriving again. However, residents wonder how long they will stay? they are afraid.
In Aguaje, closed businesses and houses destroyed by bullet wounds, remain uninhabited, as well as the round orchards, mostly lemon, after the death of a peasant by an explosive mine was reported, while he was walking their lands.
El Aguaje is, without a doubt, one of the most enigmatic towns in Aguililla. There is a calm silence; barely the sound of a bird that can be heard in the distance, between an uninhabited square and the silent walls of blue stains, where before the four letters could be seen in capital letters: CJNG.
As part of the reconstruction work in the area, it is known that the military removed the traces that cartels left on traffic signs, properties and even on the floor, but will it be enough to erase all the bullets and silence all the deaths of a war? ?
Crosses in memory of some deceased and abandoned cars accompany the route to Aguililla, while soldiers guard the road.
“Don’t let them go away,” asks from her chair Doña Lucía, 77 years old, in a voice that was almost lost in the crowd of an event organized by federal and state authorities last Thursday, in the Plaza de Aguililla, in order to continue with the so-called reconstruction of peace.
There, government representatives explain to the residents strategies for the rehabilitation of highways, security and encouragement, but the residents say they understand little.
Most of the attendees are older adults, girls and boys, as well as single mothers, who attend the square, as it is the first public event after the recovery of the area by the armed forces.
“We will remain in the area indefinitely,” reaffirms the general of the Apatzingán barracks and in charge of the Aguililla military troops, Enrique Covarrubias López.
The municipal seat is, at the end of the route, one of the most populated points. The first children are already beginning to be seen playing in the main square of Aguililla, with their mothers and grandparents.
“Before I couldn’t even bring one to the children in the square, now they can go out. They come to have fun for a while, ”says Mrs. María sitting next to her elderly mother and her grandchildren who are no more than six years old.
“And then for fear of the disease we didn’t go out either,” he says regarding Covid-19.
On the sides of the square, between the arches that distinguish the edges of the place, a group of people is queuing to receive pantries and blankets from the state government; It is known that the violence that took place in the area has kept the area incommunicado, preventing the arrival of basic products.
Mrs. Felipa says that almost everything she buys for her errand is expensive, because the merchants bring it from another place, mainly from the state of Colima, because the transportation costs and other fees have kept the basic basket expensive. compared to other municipalities in Michoacán.
Among the residents, it is said that the same criminal groups that operated there were collectors for the circulation of input goods, as well as expropriators of land, mainly those used to grow lemons, which generated a decrease in production and the lack of of employment, because what do people live on in no man’s land?
There are still no accurate numbers on the people who are said to be returning to their homes after the arrival of the armed forces.
Felipa, who has lived there her entire life for more than 60 years, says many may never return. This is the case of her daughter and her husband, who fled with their children to the United States, where, fortunately, they managed to settle.
“But there are many who don’t, many who don’t know about them”; disappeared who did not have time to say goodbye and have not communicated either.
For his part, Gilberto Vergara, parish priest of Aguililla, assures that the municipality has been calmer since security was increased with the presence of the National Guard and Sedena, however, violence still needs to be reduced, so governments must avoid sweeping away any of the criminal cells to leave this place in the hands of another group of the population.
Although the state and federal governments have assured their commitment to the rehabilitation of Aguililla, the results are little by little, without any precision of the time of the military in the area to keep the criminal groups out, and thus, the residents stop to walk between the bullets.
How long will peace live Aguililla? It is not known.
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