Mexico's Strategy to Contain Anti-Mafia Vigilantes Is Hanging By a Thread Trevor Stack - The Conversation
go to original October 4, 2014

Vigilantes in south central Mexico were turned into an official rural force. (EPA)

Mexico’s problems with organised crime came to a head this year. Faced with government inaction, vigilantes began arming themselves against mafia in the central-west state of Michoacán.

In January the Mexican president, Enrique Peña Nieto, sent in Alfredo Castillo, a media-savvy prosecutor who has fought fires for him in the past. With a population of 4.4m and an economy that ranges from agriculture to forestry to iron and steelworks, Michoacán’s mafia problem may not have been worse than, say, the neighbouring state of Jalisco, where last week a federal congressman was abducted and killed. Rather, the special intervention from the government in the state was because the vigilantes brought it widespread attention.

Castillo set to work with the vigilante groups, using their local knowledge to track down mafia. He turned them into a new rural force, complete with uniforms, vehicles and weapons. Together they have arrested or killed hundreds of mafia leaders and henchmen, as well as politicians and functionaries who colluded with the mafia.

Yet the president’s man is now beset by critics, who complain that he has staged a “circus” to maximise media coverage rather than tackle the issues. Some remaining vigilante groups, notably through the Facebook page “Valor Por Michoacán”, have gone further. They accuse him of setting up a new cartel, pointing to the number of ex-mafia figures in the leadership of the new rural force. On Wednesday October 1, the vigilantes declared they plan to rise up again.

Read the full story at The Conversation

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