Former president Felipe Calderón Hinojosa recounted how he found out that during his term there were elements of the police colluding with the Knights Templar in Michoacán.
In his participation in the forum on “Politics and Electoral Campaigns” of the 2023 Regional Meeting, organized by the Center for Analysis for Public Policies, Calderón talked about how a mayor confessed to him about the link between police and criminals.
“People were saying that the police director of their municipality was one of the bosses, he was one of the bad guys, and then as we left the event, I got into the truck and said to him like this: ‘Listen to me… people are telling me that your police director is with the Knights Templar!’”
The former president did not specify the municipality in question. However, it could be deduced that it was in Michoacán because he mentions the Knights Templar, a cartel that operates there.
Calderón recounted, between smiles, the Mayor’s response:
“’Wow, President!.. The director of the police, the director of markets, the director of wines and liquors, the director of construction… I have 12 police officers with 38 pistols, they arrive in three Suburbans, armed to the teeth, and well they tell me: ‘You’re going to put this one…you’re going to give me 15%.’”
He summarized the anecdote like this:
“They take over the state, they capture it, that is the real threat, more than drugs or in addition to drugs.”
Calderón addressed several topics, including the constant siege by the current president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, of various organizations; the use of the power of the Mexican State to support Claudia Sheinbaum towards the presidency of the country, and the looting of trusts and public funds at the initiative of the Executive.
On February 21, 2023, Genaro García Luna, who was the Secretary of Public Security during Felipe Calderón’s six-year term, was found guilty by a New York jury of collaborating with organized crime, to which the former president has distanced himself.
