Overview

• Governor Alfredo Ramírez Bedolla described the video announcing the Ejército Purépecha de Libertad Michoacana as a “montaje a todas luces” orchestrated by organized crime
• Officials noted this is the third staged armed-group video circulating in Michoacán this year
• Bedolla suggested the same criminal networks that once formed autodefensas are behind the new footage’s campaign
• After meetings last week with over 46 indigenous communities, state officials found no evidence of an authentic self-defense force
• The footage included threats against municipalities such as Cotija, Los Reyes and Uruapan, tapping into local fears of kidnapping and extortion