Mexican Vigilante Groups Fighting Cartel Must Surrender Weapons by May 10th EFE
go to original April 28, 2014

Groups of armed vigilantes search a cave for cartel leader Servando 'La Tuta' Gomez, a Mexican teacher-turned-drug kingpin. (Reuters)

Mexican authorities and leaders of the self-defense groups who have been battling the Caballeros Templarios (Knights Templar) drug cartel in the western state of Michoacan for more than a year have signed an agreement spelling out the timetable for the militias to disarm.

The self-defense groups must begin surrendering their guns, which include AK-47 and AR-15 assault rifles, on Monday and completely disarm by May 10, officials said.

The militia leaders inked the disarmament deal Friday in a meeting at the headquarters of the 43rd Military Zone in Apatzingan, Michoacan, the largest city in the crime-ridden Tierra Caliente region.

The meeting was chaired by Alfredo Castillo Cervantes, the federal commissioner for security and development in Michoacan, and attended by the top two self-defense leaders, Estanislao Beltran and Jose Manuel Mireles.

Not all members of the self-defense groups will return to civilian life, however, as 516 have signed up for what will be the new Rural Defense Corps, which will operate under the control of the Mexican military.

Read the rest at Fox News Latino

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