Hipolito Mora, Opponent of Mexico's Cartels Is Detained in Vigilantes' Deaths Damien Cavemarch - The New York Times
go to original March 13, 2014

A leader of a vigilante group, who has been fighting a violent drug gang in Mexico, has been arrested on suspicion of murder. Hipolito Mora is accused of killing two members of a rival vigilante unit. Al Jazeera's Adam Raney reports from Mexico City. (AlJazeeraEnglish)

MEXICO CITY — Hipólito Mora often said that he started the first self-defense group in the Mexican state of Michoacán to end the boundless cruelty of the Knights Templar cartel — the killing, the extortion, and the monopolistic control it exerted over local lime growers.

Now, a little over a year later, Mr. Mora, 58, whose ever-present cowboy hat and national commentary have made him the public face of Mexico’s vigilante movement, is accused of the very same offenses.

He was detained on Tuesday as a suspect in the death of two men working with a rival self-defense group, Mexican authorities said, heightening fears that what began as a citizen push for peace is now morphing into another layer of violent conflict over money and power in a region that has been out of control for years.

Read the rest at The New York Times

Photo: Ulises Ruiz Basurto/European Pressphoto Agency

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