Enemies of Mexican Drug Gangs Pose a Security Challenge in the 'Tierra Caliente' Elisabeth Malkin and Paulina Villegasjan - The New York Times
go to original January 14, 2014

In the Michoacan state, the presence of drug gangs has prompted the creation of a local defense group. They've taken matters into their own hands and driven out members of a drug gang known as the Knights Templar. The vigilantes are now guarding the entrance to the town of Nueva Italia, braced for a possible counter-attack. Al Jazeera's Rachel Levin reports from Mexico City. (Al Jazeera)

MEXICO CITY — The scenes are incongruous. Inside the heavily guarded colonial state government building in Michoacán on Monday, a solemn lineup of officials vowed that the federal government would restore authority to a region that has descended into lawlessness.

But a couple of hundred miles away, in Michoacán’s agricultural lowlands, pickup trucks filled with armed men calling themselves self-defense forces have been careening down country roads for the past week, advancing on towns encircling the region’s main city, Apatzingán. They have promised to seize the city, the stronghold of the Knights Templar, the state’s powerful drug gang.

Security analysts have said, however, that these self-defense forces themselves are murky and may even include members of other gangs.

The turmoil in Michoacán — where vigilantes have been battling cartel gunmen on village streets — poses one of the biggest security challenges for President Enrique Peña Nieto, whose focus since taking office a little over a year ago has been on the economy. He concluded his first year in office last month by successfully pushing broad economic changes through Congress.

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