Cherán (Spanish pronunciation: [tʃe'ɾan]) is a municipality located in the Mexican state of Michoacán, which is situated in the central western portion of Mexico, extending west to the Pacific Shore.

In his book Crossing Over, Rubén Martínez explains that Cherán means "a place of fear" in the Purépecha language, alluding to its unfriendly landscape of "abrupt, irregular peaks and chasms" which bodes disaster to anyone taking a careless step.

[2][3][4] The Los Angeles Times provides the background of the 2011 uprising:[5] That was the year that residents, most of them indigenous and poor, waged an insurrection and declared self-rule in hopes of ridding themselves of the ills that plague so much of Mexico: raging violence, corrupt politicians, a toothless justice system and gangs that have expanded from drug smuggling to extortion, kidnapping and illegal logging.

[5] Thus, on April 15, 2011 a group of women and men using rocks and fireworks attacked a busload of illegal loggers associated with the Mexican drug cartel La Familia Michoacana and armed with machine guns.

The vigilantes assumed control over the town, expelled the police force and politicians and blocked roads leading to oak forest on a nearby mountain which had been subject to illegal logging by armed gangs supported by corrupt officials.

There is not a single decision taken without consensus, from who will get a local job in construction, to the allocation of public services and overseeing the spending of the budget.

[citation needed] Instituto Nacional de Estadística Geografía e Informática (INEGI) indicates that the average temperatures for nearby Zamora, 48 kilometers away, between the years of 1971 and 1999 ranged between 17 °C and 24 °C.

[16] The three prominent buildings in Cherán include the church, the presidencia municipal, and the casa de cambio, or currency exchange center.

[17] In 2000, the municipal website of Cherán reported that 80% of water is potable, 60% of the roads are paved, 90% of the streets have public lighting, and 35% of garbage is collected.

[22] According to other sources, "about fifty thousand acres of forest were illegally cut between 2008 and 2011," and 200–250 logging trucks a day passed through the town.

[23][24] During the initial confrontation that provoked the 2011 uprising, women were concerned that logging threatened a spring important for local water supply.