Photo: Enrique Castro Sanchez
Cherán, Michoacán. – Residents of the community of Cherán held a Purépecha ceremony yesterday on El Calvario Hill to mark the 15th anniversary of their successful expulsion, using stones and sticks, of the loggers who had plundered their pine and fir forests for decades.
Starting in the morning, after the bell rang, people began gathering at the site where the community had responded to the aggression of the forest predators, who had already cleared more than 10,000 hectares.
With flowers, fire, and incense, Cherán remembered the 17 community members who, over the years, lost their lives in the struggle to defend their territory.
In April 2011, the community expelled the members of the town council and the municipal police officers who had long been in cahoots with criminals and who, according to the residents, had distinguished themselves only by the abuses they committed in this town, located in the Purépecha Plateau region.
Months later, the town elected its first self-governing body, administered by a council that is periodically renewed and has successfully established its own community patrol, composed of men and women who defend the safety of its residents without receiving a salary.
Community police officers patrolled the four neighborhoods to commemorate the days of struggle, when they set up barricades with huge bonfires at street corners and town exits to protect the area. To this day, they maintain checkpoints at the exits leading to Nahuatzen, Paracho, and Charapan.
From jorongos (traditional attire) to tactical camouflage uniforms
In the past, Cherán’s security guards wore traditional cloaks (jorongos), but over the past 15 years they have formed an organized security force—now uniformed, armed, and trained.
On this occasion, they paraded with armored vehicles, high-caliber rifles, tactical forest camouflage, and anti-drone devices.
In the main escort, Aldo Obed Soto, 27, commented that he joined the Cherán police to be able to contribute something to his community; “I felt like I wasn’t contributing anything, so I took the plunge and made the decision to show what we can do when we’re united.”
Aldo was 12 years old in April 2011, and he recounts that he was taken out of town during the uprising, but he could see that his town was “suffering because of organized crime.”
With a smile on his face, he says he feels “satisfaction in being able to make a difference; it gives me hope to see children playing freely and walking around without anything bad happening; yes, I’m afraid, but I put up with it to protect my people.”
Esmeralda Jerónimo adjusts her uniform; she is also 27 years old and carried the Purépecha flag during the parade. “Before, I couldn’t join because I have children and didn’t have the time, but now they’re very proud. They say they like seeing me here, and that motivates me to keep going,” she said.
Esmeralda is one of the few women in the organization, a position she says they have earned since the movement began; before, she said, it wasn’t easy to find a place, but “now they’re open to both men and women; I feel proud—not just anyone dares to join.”
Cherán became the first community with recognized self-government and direct budget control, an achievement that stemmed from the acts of resistance on April 15, 2011.
Original text by Enrique Castro published in La Jornada on April 16th, 2026.
Translated by Schools for Chiapas
The Purépecha Community that Drove Out Political Parties and Organized Crime
Cherán K’eri is a Purépecha indigenous community of more than 19,000 people located in the state of Michoacán, Mexico. In 2000, organized crime began to infiltrate the community, primarily through the illegal logging industry, murdering and forcing into disappearance anyone who tried to defend the forests. Photo: Somos El Medio
It is estimated that between 2000 and 2011, more than 20,000 hectares of forest were devastated by loggers, affecting the wildlife and community life in Cherán. Residents of the community say that people lived in terror, confined to their homes, leaving Cherán a ghost town.
Fed up with the fact that municipal and state authorities failed to act in the face of insecurity, and that political parties “only divided the community,” a group of women decided to put a stop to it.
On April 15, 2011, tired of watching as the loggers (protected by La Familia Michoacana) destroyed their forests, they began the fight to defend their territory.
“When we got there, it was still dark out; it was around 6:30 in the morning. The bells were ringing because Mass was about to begin (…) There were just five of us women from this neighborhood, all women; there were a few men, but mostly women (…) We chased the trucks away by throwing rocks at them; one woman even tripped and scraped her whole knee because the truck backed up into her…,” says one of the women who participated in the uprising.
The Calvario Church, in the third neighborhood of Cherán, was the site where the women blocked the path of trucks loaded with illegally logged timber, setting them on fire and detaining five of the illegal loggers.
Since that night, the town has set up more than 190 bonfires and four barricades, placed at each of the town’s entrances, to control access to the community.
“As soon as the bells rang, people grabbed their machetes or sticks—whatever they could find—and ran out to join the bonfires,” recalls one of the women who participated in the movement.
“One of my daughters-in-law said to me one day: ‘Look, you stay here, stay with my children, because if it’s our turn, you’ll take care of them—we can’t take a step back—and if we have to die, at least you’ll be left with the children,’ and so they would go out to the bonfires and I would look after the children.”
The bonfires were key to the Cherán movement; they were the place where the community began to organize and make decisions, which were then brought to the Community Assembly, where they were discussed and community agreements were reached.
It was around the campfires that the Community Patrol emerged, made up of residents who were responsible for ensuring the town’s safety. It was also there that their new form of government was decided: the Greater Council of Cherán K’eri.
After nearly a year of social and political struggle, on February 5, 2012, Cherán succeeded in getting the Michoacán State Legislature to recognize that the community could elect its own authorities in accordance with local customs and traditions, thereby establishing its first High Council of Government.
Cherán K’eri, a municipality with more than 19,000 residents, is one of the largest Purépecha communities. They proudly celebrate and identify themselves as a community that drove organized crime, the state police, and political parties out of their territory.
Original text and photo published by Somos el Medio on April 1st, 2024.
Translation by Schools for Chiapas.