Mexican Vigilantes Who Ousted Knights Templar Cartel Could Bring New Violence Jo Tuckman - The Guardian
go to original March 21, 2014

Armed vigilantes, who helped defeat the Knights Templar cartel, march through a town in Michoacán last month. (Ulises Ruiz Basurto/EPA)

When people in Mexico's western state of Michoacán started fighting back against the unbridled violence, systematic economic exploitation, and shattered self respect that came with living under the de facto dictatorship of one of Mexico's most vicious and bizarre criminal gangs, many in Mexico applauded, or at least expressed sympathy.

Today the Knights Templar cartel that once dominated the region is a shadow of its former self, but concern is growing that the heavily armed militias who helped break the cartel's dominance could themselves trigger more violence and prove as difficult to control.

"The basic problem with the self-defence groups is that the government cannot disarm them without handing control back to the Knights Templars, but it can't tolerate them either," says Alejandro Hope, a leading expert on Mexico's drug wars.

Read the rest at The Guardian

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