Mexico deputizes rural vigilantes

120 gun-toting ranchers, farmers sworn in to fight cartel

TEPALCATEPEC, Mexico -- Mexico's government on Saturday began demobilizing a vigilante movement of assault-rifle-wielding ranchers and farmers that had succeeded in largely expelling the Knights Templar drug cartel from the western state of Michoacan when authorities couldn't.

At a ceremony in the town of Tepalcatepec, where the movement began in February 2013, officials handed out new pistols, rifles and uniforms to 120 self-defense group members who were sworn into a new official rural police force.

"Now we are part of the government. Now we can defend ourselves with weapons in a legal way," said the movement's spokesman, Estanislao Beltran, during the ceremony on the grounds of an area rancher's association.

The government hopes creation of the new rural force will end the Wild West chapter of the self-defense movement, in which civilians built roadblocks and battled cartel members for towns in the rich farming area called the "Tierra Caliente," or Hot Land.

The nature of the new force is still unclear. But the federal commissioner for Michoacan, Alfredo Castillo, said Saturday that it had already been involved in a clash Friday evening with false self-defense groups -- even before the swearing-in ceremonies in Tepalcatepec and the town of Buenavista.

Castillo told members of the new rural force that they would "have the responsibility of defending your neighbors from delinquency and organized crime."

The government had found itself in an embarrassing situation: Elected leaders and law enforcement agencies had lost control of the state to the pseudo-religious Knights Templar drug cartel. Efforts to regain control with federal police and the military failed. Government forces eventually had to rely on the vigilantes because of their knowledge of where to find the cartel gunmen.

Since the commissioner was named in January, federal forces have arrested or killed three of the main leaders of the Knights Templar. The fourth, Servando "La Tuta" Gomez, is in hiding and rumored to be in the rugged hills outside his hometown of Arteaga.

But the vigilante movement has been plagued by divisions, and its general council dismissed one of the founders, Dr. Jose Manuel Mireles, as its spokesman last week because of an unauthorized video he released directed at President Enrique Pena Nieto.

Another founder, Hipolito Mora, is in jail, accused of the murder of two purported rivals. Castillo told Mexico's Radio Formula on Friday that he is also investigating claims that Mireles was involved in the killing of five vigilantes near Lazaro Cardenas last month .

Some of the self-defense groups plan to continue as they are, defending their territory without registering their arms. Vigilantes against the demobilization have set up roadblocks in the coastal town of Caleta and other parts of the region near the port of Lazaro Cardenas.

"We don't want them to come; we don't recognize them," vigilante Melquir Sauceda said of the government and the new rural police forces. "Here, we can maintain our own security. We don't need anyone bringing it from outside."

There were indications that cartel members were trying to take advantage of that standoff.

Castillo said state and federal troops, backed for the first time by the rural force, detained 155 people "who were trying to pass as self-defense groups."

Beltran said those arrested were members of organized criminal gangs.

A vigilante group member who had been manning a roadblock in the area earlier Friday said his group's members retreated to their homes when the police arrived about 8 p.m. and then heard heavy shooting involving another group.

The man, who refused to give his name for fear of reprisal, said his group's members were not battling the government and were hiding in their homes for protection.

Meanwhile, no one is giving up their guns, even assault weapons prohibited under Mexican law, though the former vigilantes are supposed to register their guns with the government.

Vigilante Irineo Mendoza, 44, drove down from his mountain hometown of Aguililla to register his gun with authorities last week. He planned to take the weapon home with him because, he said, the Knights Templar remain hidden in the mountains.

"These are the guns we are going to fight them with," Mendoza said.

Many predict little will change.

"This [demobilization] agreement is just something to please the government," said Rene Sanchez, 22, a vigilante from Buenavista. "With them or without them, we are going to keep at it."

A Section on 05/11/2014

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