'I Will Die Before I Give Up My Struggle': Mexico's Last of the Vigilantes Jan-Albert Hootsen - Newsweek
go to original August 19, 2015

Adelitas: Women in Community Police Forces in Mexico (teleSUR Reports)

Despite the vigilantes' success against the drug gangs — and some would say because of it — the government had seen enough. The autodefensas were a heavily armed force outside the army’s control, and some feared they could easily morph into yet another cartel. Over the past year, the vigilante groups have fallen apart as the federal government has persuaded some among their ranks to join the police, which critics say was effectively an attempt at a payoff. Those who tried to keep the autodefensas together haven’t been successful either.

In late July, Cemeí Verdía Zepeda, one of the last vigilante leaders still operating in the area, was arrested by Mexican soldiers in the town of La Placita on charges of theft, illegal arms possession and murder. In early August, a federal court absolved him of the last charge, but he remains in prison. His arrest provoked an angry reaction from supporters in his hometown, who for hours blocked a bridge near the prison, demanding his release. The army arrived, the two sides clashed, and a 12-year old boy was shot and killed in the melee, though it’s unclear who is responsible. “It was never going to end well” for the vigilantes, says Miguel Ángel Sánchez, a local political commentator. Long-term, “there is really no way of preventing Michoacán ... from being a hub for drug trafficking.”

Perhaps so. With the autodefensas now largely defunct, residents of Michoacán say violence has flared again, as new drug gangs have occupied the Tierra Caliente.

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Photo: Miguel Tovar/Getty

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