Security Envoy to Michoacan Tells Vigilante Groups to Join Police or Disarm Agence France-Presse
go to original April 4, 2014

An armed man belonging to the Self-Defense Council of Michoacan stands guard at a checkpoint set up by the self-defense group at the entrance to Antunez, Mexico. (AP/Eduardo Verdugo)

Authorities warned vigilantes in western Mexico on Thursday to disarm or face arrest after security forces fulfilled the "self-defense" militia's demand that they take down top drug lords.

The federal government has killed or captured in recent weeks three of the four main leaders of the Knights Templar drug cartel that has tormented the state of Michoacan.

The authorities had tolerated the expansion of vigilante militias that were founded in February 2013 by farmers fed up with the local police's inability or refusal to get rid of the vicious gang.

But President Enrique Pena Nieto's special security envoy to Michoacan, Alfredo Castillo, said the vigilantes must disarm, and he renewed an invitation for them to join a Rural Defense Corps.

The disarmament "will have to take place in the coming weeks" along with the removal of barricades that vigilantes have put up in several towns, Castillo told a news conference in the state capital Morelia.

Castillo warned that anybody found carrying weapons illegally after that would be detained.

Read the rest at iafrica.com

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