Mexico's 'Self-Defense' Vigilantes Clash With Troops

The Mexican military’s efforts to disarm vigilante groups in Michoacan have resulted in violent clashes and left at least two dead, illustrating the pitfalls of officials’ past tolerance of the militias.

During Interior Minister Miguel Osorio Chong’s announcement on Monday that the federal government would assume control of security in Michoacan’s Tierra Caliente region, he called on the various “self-defense” movements in the area to stop their campaign against the Knights Templar cartel and allow the military to do the job. Federal police stepped up patrols in the region, and troops began disarming vigilante groups, El Universal reports.

Leaders of the self-defense groups were less than keen to turn over their arms to soldiers, however. Jose Mireles, the high-profile vigilante leader who is being treated in Mexico City following a plane crash earlier this month, released a series of videos in which he criticized the disarmament (albeit using frequently contradictory statements). Reuters reports that Estanislao Beltran, another vigilante leader, told local radio that laying down their weapons would put local communities in danger.

Beltran also said that security forces had fired on innocent townspeople on Monday, killing four, including an 11 year-old girl. While the Associated Press confirmed only two deaths, and spoke with relatives of a third deceased victim, the National Human Rights Commission corroborated Beltran’s figure in a press release. The defense department, for its part, has only acknowledged one civilian casualty. Other press reports yesterday placed the death toll higher. La Reforma, for instance, cited “preliminary reports from state sources” claiming that 9 civilians had been killed.

The deaths are sure to fuel criticism of the federal government’s relative lenience towards vigilante groups in Michoacan. In recent months the army and federal police have refrained from intervening with the self-defense groups’ battles with the Knights Templar, even coordinating helicopter cover and street patrols with the vigilantes. Just last week, Chong acknowledged that federal police were protecting the exclusive private hospital where Milenes is staying. “Yes, we are protecting him,” the interior minister said. “Because he is a person who has wounded the cartels, particularly the Templars.”

It now seems this honeymoon period has ended, and vigilante organizations will be placed under increased state scrutiny. Yesterday Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam told reporters that prosecutors have been investigating the self-defense groups’ funding, and that their findings would be released in the coming days.

More on the public relations implications of the army/vigilante clash from the L.A. Times. The New York Times highlights the difficult position the government of Enrique Peña Nieto is in as a result of the violence, while the Wall Street Journal notes that the conflict is pitting the army against local communities, who frequently support the vigilantes.

News Briefs

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