Mexico vigilantes clash with Knights Templar cartel in Michoacan

[Valin]

BBC:

1/13/14

 

Local police are searched by the Self-Defence Council of Michoacan

 

A group of vigilantes in Mexico has seized the small town of Nueva Italia after clashing with alleged members of the Knights Templar drug cartel.

More than 100 men entered the town in western Michoacan state on Sunday morning and disarmed local police.

 

There were exchanges of fire with alleged gang members before the vigilantes occupied the town.

The vigilante group was set up by residents who say the army and the police have failed to protect them.

 

Vigilantes in Nueva Italia say they are liberating the area from the cartels

 

The vigilantes arrived in pick-up trucks and larger vehicles

 

Vigilantes, also known as self-defence groups or community police, have been active in several Mexican states.

In Michoacan they control several towns. A few days ago they launched an offensive, occupying the towns of Paracuaro and Antunez.

 

(Snip)

[Valin]

Mexico changes tack on vigilante groups

Mariano Castillo

Tue January 28, 2014

 

An armed resident in Xaltianguis, Acapulco municipality, on April 2, 2013, in the southwestern State of Guerrero, Mexico

 

(CNN) -- In a sudden turnaround this week, the Mexican government will provide vigilante groups fighting a drug cartel in western Mexico a path to become recognized, moving away from earlier calls for the groups to disarm.

 

The state of Michoacan, long a flashpoint in Mexico's drug war, has of late been the scene of fighting between a cartel calling itself the Knights Templar and so-called "auto-defense" groups that have armed themselves and patrolled the streets.

 

The vigilante groups grew from complaints that the government was not doing enough to protect citizens from the drug cartel. The government acted this month, sending federal forces to the region and ordering the vigilante groups to lay down their weapons.

 

But Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto appears to have abandoned that call, and instead announced a plan wherein the vigilante forces -- if they meet certain criteria -- can become part of a government-sanctioned Rural Defense Corps.

 

(Snip)