Interviews from Mexico, hosted by Laura Carlsen, goes straight to the source -- the men and women making news and making history in Mexico and throughout the region. Today's program takes a look at the situation in the State of Michoacan, where violent conflicts have pitted security forces against community self-defense groups formed to protect the population against the omnipresent drug cartels. While the federal government's plan to pacify the state has floundered, repression has been effectively used to jail leaders of the self-defense groups. To understand this explosive situation, Carlsen interviews Talia Vazquez, activist and lawyer for Jose Manuel Mireles, the most prominent leader of the community self-defense movement in Michoacan, who is currently imprisoned. Vazquez discusses the situation in Michoacan, the economic dimension of organized crime and the drug cartels, and the role of the army; the need and legal basis for self-defense organizations; and the Mireles case. teleSUR