Cherán resistance

The forest guardians who beat back Mexico’s cartels

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by J Michael Waller / The Daily Beast / September 24, 2016. MORELIA, Mexico — One day in the late spring of 2012, Mexican police pulled over Efrén Olivares Valdez and told him he was delivering his truckload of raw pine resin to the wrong refinery. The grandfatherly driver, a leader of his indigenous tribal … Read more

Green police, Part 2: Tribesmen defend themselves against gangsters & government

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by J Michael Waller / Lubbock Avalanche-Journal / March 7, 2016. Continuation from part 1, published February 25, 2016. CHERÁN, MEXICO – Some rural Mexicans working in the United States are heading home to revive the forests of their ancestral homeland. Among them are illegal immigrants who found that life can be better back home. They … Read more

Green police, Part 1: Mexican tribesmen take up arms to protect their forests from crooked officials & cartels

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by J Michael Waller / Lubbock Avalanche-Journal / February 25 and March 7, 2016. I visited Cherán and walked the mountainside with the guardabosques, writing a two-part series for the American Media Institute that appeared February 25 and 26. Here are the stories, as published in the Lubbock (Texas) Avalanche-Journal: Part 1: “Green Police: Mexican tribesmen save their forests from … Read more