The Worst Thing This Mexican Town Did Was Drive Out the Drug Traffickers Jan-Albert Hootsen - Vocativ
go to original December 23, 2014

A group of vigilantes fire guns at the funeral of one of their members in La Ruana, in the Mexican state of Michoacán. (Vocativ/Brett Gundlock)

LA RUANA, Mexico – The 20 men, wearing blue uniforms, helmets and bulletproof vests, aim their rifles into the air. A deafening barrage of gunfire echoes through the cemetery, followed by applause from the crowd gathered behind them. “We will avenge you, Manuel!” a girl screams.

This quaint town of 10,000 people in central Mexico, surrounded by lime groves and cattle ranches, was supposed to be a model of populist revolution, a case study in what happens when citizens rise up and reclaim their towns from criminal gangs. Instead, it’s devolved into one of the most dangerous spots in the country.

It’s in some ways a metaphor for the state of the country. President Enrique Pena Nieto, facing mass protests over rising levels of violence, has pledged to make Mexico safer. He has sent troops into various towns, including many in the central state of Michoacan, where La Ruena is located. But the quest to pacify Mexico has mostly been a failure, because beyond the infusion of soldiers and federal police, the government hasn’t found a way to stop corruption and organized crime from seeping into daily life.

For decades, La Ruena and the surrounding towns were run by the drug cartels that dominate the lucrative meth and weed trades. Murder, kidnapping and extortion were part of daily life. Then earlier last year, some fed-up residents decided to create their own militias to drive the drug traffickers out of town. Their plan worked — dozens of cartel members died in the shootouts, hundreds fled. But something even worse has filled the void: La Ruena is now in the grip of a civil war between rival militia groups that are literally killing each other to gain control of the town. Many here now accuse these same groups of having taken up the drug trade themselves.

Read the rest at Vocativ

Scenes from gun battle in La Ruana last week

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