Posted on 01/20/2014 12:23:56 PM PST by csvset
Mexico has disarmed more than 1,200 local police officers suspected of colluding with drug traffickers in Michoacan state and arrested 38 members of the notorious Knights Templar drug cartel active in the region.
Among those arrested was Jesus Vasquez Macias, 37, who goes by the alias "El Toro," a leading figure in the cartel, Monte Alejandro Rubido Garcia, a top federal security official, announced late Sunday.
Garcia said federal forces have taken control of 27 municipalities in the western Mexico state and disarmed 1,209 of the local police officers.
The officers will undergo investigations, Garcia said.
They are accused of colluding with gangs by the vigilante militias that have taken up arms in recent months in restive Michoacan state.
The self-defense groups, made up of farmers and other local people, aimed to take over from local police to oust the Knights Templar from the region to stop the group's violence, kidnapping and extortion rackets.
Since February 2013, the self-defense groups have taken control over some 20 towns.
In recent days, federal forces launched a major operation in the state and tried to disarm the vigilantes as well as flush out the Knights Templar gang.
The capture of Vasquez Macias and other Knights Templar leaders was among the conditions the vigilante groups demanded before giving in to government demands they turn over their own weapons.
Vasquez Macias, who was picked up in the port city of Lazaro Cardenas, was charged with offenses related to organized crime, Rubido Garcia said.
Michoacan, where much of the population lives in poverty, has become the most pressing security issue facing Mexico President Enrique Pena Nieto, who inherited a bloody war on drugs from his predecessor in 2012 that has left more than 77,000 people dead since it was launched in 2006.
They are trying to disarm the vigilantes, too. The vigilantes are the only stability in the region since the police are so corrupt.
The capture of Vasquez Macias and other Knights Templar leaders was among the conditions the vigilante groups demanded before giving in to government demands they turn over their own weapons.
About all I can say is, "Adios suckers!"
“in the port city of Lazaro Cardenas”
I looked at Google maps and it doesn’t look near the coast to me.
Wordsmithing to provide cover for making safer for the criminals, gangs, and federales’. As if there were a difference............Welcome to our side of the border fella’s.
Neither is Tulsa Oklahoma yet it also has a barge terminal port and has a port athority.
Thanks. I found it now. Google map search was sending me to the wrong location in central Mexico, but with the coordinates at the Wikipedia link, I found it near the coast.
Tip of the iceberg I am certain.
A new paradigm has emerged in the Michoacán State of Mexico and it will bode well for US to pay attention.
The finally fed up citizens of Michoacán armed themselves last year and took on the job their government wouldn’t do; that is ridding their society of the local cartel, the Caballeros Templarios.
The citizens, shopkeepers, engineers, farmers and others with no real understanding of strategy or tactics except to know their targets and have the cajones to pull the trigger, have achieved a level of success that has resulted in a considerable drop in cartel terrorism against them. Their every success spawns even more success.
http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2014/01/the-war-in-michoacan-brief-chronology.html
Believe it or not, the Mexican government now wants to collect their guns and the citizens won’t give them up. Yesterday a video was released claiming the federales are allegedly killing the autodefensas defenders.
http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2014/01/video-my-right-to-self-defend.html
Whether that is the case or not is difficult to say with certainty at this point. But the government supporting media has already been caught editing an interview of the acknowledged leader of the autodefensas movement, Dr. Mireles, that changed the meaning of his entire message.
http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2014/01/the-missing-six-seconds.html
And there is the matter of Dr. Mireles recent plane crash that reflects darkly on the federale leaders, newly elected or not.
http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2014/01/the-missing-six-seconds.html
The reality of this situation is it is a rare opportunity to recognize the difference between rebellion and survival.
The government façade is wearing thin. What is becoming evident is that it is the government in a state of rebellion against the citizens. And the citizens have just recently recognized their survival was at stake.
What we could learn is there is nothing wrong with US organizing. In fact, it’s a Second Amendment requirement. Just in case something like that happens here.
Sounds like the end of a pretty cool movie.
I say Machete should star.
What? They are associated with the ATFE?
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