Four dead in Mexico’s Michoacan state amid clashes

Clashes between the Mexican army and suspected drug cartels have left one person dead in the country’s Michoacan state, as three other bodies have been found in the state’s capital.

The Tuesday’s casualty came after Mexico’s naval staff members engaged in a shootout with suspects in the town of Sahuayo.

Three dead bodies were also found in Morelia, showing signs of escalating violence between vigilante groups and drug cartels in the city.

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto was forced to deploy thousands of troops and federal police to an agricultural region known as Tierra Caliente, or Hot Land, in Michoacan to restore security after civilians began to form “self-defense” militias last year to oust the Knights Templar drug cartel.

The movement has since grown, posing the biggest security challenge of President Enrique Pena Nieto’s administration.

According to the vigilantes, the Mexican army and police have failed to protect people from drug cartels. They also claim that local and state law enforcement officers are in the employ of the Knights Templar.

The Mexican president has pledged to get rid of gang violence that has claimed about 80,000 lives in Mexico since 2007.

He has also pledged to spend about $3.4 billion in social and infrastructure programs in the troubled Mexican state on building roads, schools, hospitals, reservoirs and an energy innovation center, aiming to “reverse the conditions of institutional weakness” in the state.

Official data show that since Peña Nieto took office in December 2012, an additional 1,000 people have died every month in violence linked to drug cartels.