Mexico townspeople protest, burn trucks

Residents of a town in western Mexico have burned two trucks and a bus in protest against the presence of vigilantes confronting a drug cartel.

The burning trucks blocked the road leading to the town of Paracuaro in the state of Michoacan on Thursday, attorney general Marco Vinicio Aguilera said.

Aguilera also said that several armed men seized two trucks and a passenger bus before setting them on fire.

According to a government official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, residents opposed to the presence of vigilantes were responsible for the incident.

Paracuaro Mayor Lucia Barajas Vazquez called on the army to intervene to free 11 police officers held by the vigilantes and said the town residents oppose the arrival of growing civilian militia movement.

The residents have several times blocked the road since the militia forces arrived in the town on January 4. They torched two buses earlier this week.

Militias first appeared in Michoacan state in 2013 in order to fight against the Knights Templar drug cartel. They have now taken the control of about 20 towns.

The civilian militias said that they had to take up arms as local police forces could not stop the murders and extortion rackets plaguing their communities.

The Knights Templar has claimed that the civilian forces are proxy militias for the rival Jalisco New Generation cartel, a charge the self-defense civilian forces have rejected.

The government of President Enrique Pena Nieto sent thousands of forces to the troubled state in May 2013, but the violence has not ended and militias ignored the authorities’ warnings that their presence and expansion would not be tolerated.