Operation Michoacán

Operation Michoacán is a joint operation by Federal Police and the Mexican military to eliminate drug plantations and to combat drug trafficking. Initiated on December 11, 2006, the operation was supervised by The Secretary of Public Safety, Attorney General of Mexico, Secretary of the Interior, Mexican Navy and Mexican Army.

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Quick Facts Date, Location ...

Operation Michoacán
Part of Mexican Drug War
Mexican Army soldiers take cover during a gun battle in Apatzingan, Michoacán in August 2007.
Date December 11, 2006 – ongoing (18 years and 3 weeks) Location Michoacán de Ocampo, Mexico Result Ongoing
Belligerents
Mexico Mexican Army Mexican Navy Mexican Naval Infantry Mexican Federal Police (Dissolved 2019, replaced by Mexico National Guard ). Attorney General of Mexico SEIDO Municipal and State Police Independent Civilian Vigilante groups known as Community Police (with official support from the government as of 2021): Grupos de Autodefensa Comunitaria Focos Rojos (Since late 2019 in 27 out of the 113 municipalities in Michoacán)	La Nueva Familia Michoacana Organization (since 2011) La Familia Michoacana Knights Templar Cartel (Dis) Los Viagras Los Blancos De Troya Cárteles Unidos (Since 2010)[1] Since 2010: Gulf cartel Sinaloa cartel	Jalisco New Generation Cartel (Since 2013) Zicuirán New Generation Cartel ( March 15, 2020)	(2006-2012): Los Zetas Juárez Cartel Beltrán-Leyva Organization Tijuana Cartel
Commanders and leaders
Andrés Manuel López Obrador (2018–present) Luis Cresencio Sandoval (2018–present) José Rafael Ojeda Durán (2018–present) Alfredo Ramírez Bedolla (2021–present) Former commanders Felipe Calderón Enrique Peña Nieto Guillermo Galván Galván Salvador Cienfuegos Mariano Francisco Saynez Mendoza Vidal Francisco Soberón Sanz Lázaro Cárdenas Batel Leonel Godoy Rangel Fausto Vallejo Jesús Reyna García Salvador Jara Guerrero Silvano Aureoles Conejo	Nazario Moreno González † José de Jesús Méndez Vargas (POW) Servando Gómez Martínez (POW) Dionicio Loya Plancarte (POW)	Unknown	Unknown
Strength
12,000	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
Casualties and losses
60 soldiers killed 400 police officers killed	500 killed	Unknown	Unknown

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On some occasions, state and municipal police have participated despite not being part of it. The joint operation has distinguished itself as one of the operations against organized crime, drug trafficking in this case, which has employed the largest number of military and police elements, as well as most state forces.

The drug war in Michoacán started during the 1990s as the Milenio Cartel and the Amezcua Cartel would sell crystal methamphetamine imported from Colombia due to alliances with the Medellín Cartel and the Cali Cartel. Shortly after, lieutenants in the Milenio Cartel betrayed them and went to work for the Gulf Cartel which was another key distributor of Colombian drugs in Mexico. In 2003, as the drug trade grew big in Michoacán, the gulf cartel gave authority to a newly formed enforcer group called Los Zetas. The Zetas and Gulf cartels had allies with a newly formed vigilante group called La Familia Michoacana. They planned various acts of drug related crime across Michoacán including a 2004 prison break in Apatzingán to breakout members of the gulf and zetas cartels. Following Carlos Rosales Mendoza being detained for his part in the prison raid, Nazario Moreno took control of La familia declaring a turf war on rival cartels in the state of Michoacán resulting in the start of the drug war. Following up on an operation planned by predecessor, Vicente Fox, on December 12, President Felipe Calderón ordered the military to send 4,000 troops to his home state of Michoacán, where drug-related crime had left over 500 dead. Troops were assigned to areas under the control of organized criminals, conducting raids, making arrests and establishing control points on highways and secondary roads.^[2] In 2007 May 8 in Apatzingan, Michoacán, Soldiers from the 51st Infantry Battalion engaged drug traffickers. Soldiers driving HMMWV armed with Mk 19 grenade launchers killed 4 cartel gunmen, 3 soldiers were reported wounded.^[3]

• January 8 – during a routine patrol, troops were attacked by gunmen in a pickup vehicle, provoking a gunfight that lasted for various minutes in Michoacán. Four gunmen and one soldier were killed.^[16]
• January 30 – Five Federal Police officers were ambushed by gunmen while traveling on the Highway Occidente; seven federal officers were reported injured. The government scrambled federal helicopters, troops, and state police to find the ones responsible.^[17]
• April 24 – A three vehicle convoy carrying the Public Safety Secretary was attacked by gunmen which left two bodyguards and two bystanders dead. Hours later a police station in Morelia was attacked by grenades. The explosion damaged three vehicles.^[18]
• June 14 – Ten Federal Police officers were ambushed and killed while several others were injured during a firefight in Zitácuaro. The Federal Police managed to kill and injure the gunmen who are presumed to be part of La Familia Michoacana cartel. Immediately after the gunfight, army air and land units were dispatched to secure the area.^[19]
• June 16 – After the June 14 ambush attack on Federal Police officers, the Mexican Army doubled patrols in the rural areas of Zitácuaro.^[20]
• November 5 – After a suspected drug leader was trapped in Tzurumútaro (a little town located near Morelia), a series of consecutive attacks took place in Morelia. There, attacks consisting of narcobloqueos (narcoblocks, a series of run blocks) with cars on fire, with gunfights between the Federal Police, Mexican Army and gang members.^[21]

• February 3 – 4,000 additional Mexican Army troops arrive to the state of Michoacán. Troops were assigned to areas under the control of Knights Templar Cartel.^[22]

• May 22 - 6,000 Mexican Army troops arrive to the town of La Ruana, Michoacan to assigned raids and patrolling in the town under the control of the Knights Templar Cartel.^[23]

• January 22 - Enrique Plancarte Solís's daughter flees Mexico to her home in Chicago, IL due to posing a selfie on Twitter wearing a nun's costume that resembles the Knight's Templar Cartel coat of arms.
• January 26 - Vigilante group legally joins Federal Police and Army.
• January 27 - Dionisio Loya Plancarte is captured.
• February 2 - Enrique Plancarte Solís's lawyer is captured.
• February 8 - Self-Defense group reclaims Apatzingan. Antonio Plancarte Solís is captured.

• February 27-Servando Gomez Martinez is captured by Federal Police, PGR, and SEIDO agents in Morelia.

• September 6 – a Mexican cartel gang shoots down a helicopter in the western state of Michaocán. The helicopter was shot down in the region of Apatzingán, a city located in Tierra Caliente (Hot Land), a region that has been beset by drug violence and vigilante justice for years.^[24]

Operation Michoacán is the first stage of the so-called War Against Drug Trafficking implemented by the federal government of President Felipe Calderón. The joint operation has been questioned about the human rights violations that may have occurred, given the military presence among the civilian population of the state of Michoacán. The chairman of the National Commission on Human Rights, José Luis Soberanes, in May 2007, charged that had been at least 53 complaints of human rights violations by the military to the civilian population.^[25]