Experts Warn That Mexico Rural Defense Forces Could Turn Into Paramilitaries Fernando Camacho - La Jornada
go to original January 29, 2014

Mexico has decided to legalize its vigilante groups, following previous attempts to get them to surrender their weapons. Leaders signed an agreement with the government that transforms them into an officially sanctioned security force. Al Jazeera's David Mercer reports from Mexico City. (Al Jazeera English)

Academics and non-governmental human rights organizations warned of the risk that the rural defense groups might turn into "paramilitary groups" and improperly accumulate power, as has happened in other countries. The process must be undertaken with extraordinary care and caution, they said.

For René Jiménez Ornelas, coordinator of the Analytic Unit of Social Violence at the Social Research Institute, National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), the agreement to institutionalize the defense groups is "very dangerous," not just for Michoacán and other states where there is a high presence of organized crime, but for society as a whole.

Read the rest at Mexico Voices

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