Excellent: Vigilantes lock horns with Mexico drug cartel, corrupt government

Bells tolled from the red cathedral tower in the western Mexico town of Apatzingan, calling the faithful to hear a bishop who backs a growing vigilante movement against a cult-like drug cartel.

As people headed to church, soldiers patrolled the main square, banks and a supermarket in this bastion of the fearsome Knights Templar gang, which has brought mayhem to the southwestern state of Michoacan.

“We cannot deny that we are living through difficult times. Our towns are experiencing an atmosphere of uncertainty and suspicion,” Bishop Miguel Patino Velazquez told his flock, reading a message signed by Michoacan’s bishops.

East of Apatzingan, troops check cars and scan luggage in X-ray machines to look for illegal weapons.

On the western outskirts, the farmers who formed self-defense militia to combat the Templars earlier this year man their own checkpoints behind walls of sandbags.

The vigilantes say they have “liberated” more towns near Apatzingan in recent weeks and vow to spread, ignoring federal government warnings that their expansion will not be tolerated.

“Where there are kidnappings and executions, we will take all of them,” said Jose Manuel Mireles, a tall 55-year-old doctor with a thick mustache who led one of the first revolts in Tepalcatepec on February 24.

“If (authorities) say they won’t allow us to advance but they do nothing, then they can’t stop us. Our people are ready to die, including against the state government if necessary, because they are infested with criminals,” Mireles said as he hunted doves in a remote ranch. The vigilantes appeared in a handful of towns on February 24, fed up with the municipal police’s inability or unwillingness to stop the Templars, who have killed, kidnapped, fixed lime prices and extorted everyone from butchers to tortilla makers. Underscoring the complexity of Michoacan, officials and the Templars have accused the self-defense forces of being proxies of the Jalisco New Generation cartel, a charge they deny. President Enrique Pena Nieto, whose promise to curb violence in Mexico is challenged by Michoacan’s troubles, deployed thousands of soldiers to the state in May to tame the situation. Troops and federal police patrol sunbaked roads and towns in Tierra Caliente, or Hot Country, an agricultural region that exports limes and avocados to the United States as well as methamphetamine produced in makeshift labs. afp

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2013\12\06\story_6-12-2013_pg4_16
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Anarcho-Capitalist, AnCaps Forum, Ancapolis, OZschwitz Contraband
“The state calls its own violence law, but that of the individual, crime.”-- Max Stirner
"Remember: Evil exists because good men don't kill the government officials committing it." -- Kurt Hofmann

Excellent: Vigilantes lock horns with Mexico drug cartel, corrupt government

Excellent: Vigilantes lock horns with Mexico drug cartel, corrupt government

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