Left Calls for Government Pact to End Violence in Western Mexico's Michoacan EFE
go to original January 13, 2014

Self-defense groups have surged in western Mexico's Michoacan state, fighting gangs in at least 70 communities in 25 municipalities. The Spanish text says "Apatzingan is considered a bastion of the Knights Templar [gang]." (El Universal)

MEXICO CITY - The government should craft an agreement among all of Mexico's political parties to deal with the surging violence in the western state of Michoacan, Party of the Democratic Revolution, or PRD, chairman Jesus Zambrano said.

"There is a need for a grand agreement of all the political forces to work toward a solution to the conflict," the leftist leader said during a ceremony on Saturday.

The violence in Michoacan intensified after masked men set fire Friday to businesses, seven vehicles and two municipal offices in Apatzingan, a city in the Tierra Caliente region.

Some Mexican analysts say Michoacan is close to becoming a failed state because some areas are ungovernable due to the presence of drug traffickers and the emergence of vigilante groups.

Community self-defense groups occupied two more towns in Michoacan on Saturday.

Read the rest at La Prensa

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