World News

Mexican government asks vigilantes to end activities

345520_Mexico-vigilante

Mexico’s government has urged vigilantes to quit their armed struggle against a drug cartel in violence-plagued western towns, saying federal forces would handle security.

Interior Minister Miguel Angel Osorio Chong made the appeal on Monday after emergency talks were held in the Michoacan state capital, Morelia.

The emergency meeting came a day after the seizure of city Nueva Italia by the self-defense forces from the Knights Templar drug cartel.

“The self-defense groups are asked to return to their places of origin and resume their normal activities,” said Osorio Chong.

However, Eastnislao Beltran, a vigilante leader in Nueva Italia, said members of the self-defense forces were not ready to lay down their weapons.

“We can’t abandon our weapons because the moment that we do, organized crime will come after us and our families,” said Beltran.

Osorio Chong, who has admitted that Michoacan is facing a security “crisis,” signed a new security pact with the state Governor Fausto Vallejo for federal forces to take over the responsibilities of state and local police.

The interior minister also invited the vigilantes to join regular police forces and warned that authorities would not accept people using illegal weapons.

The new security pact comes eight months after President Enrique Pena Nieto deployed thousands of troops and federal police to Michoacan State; however, the forces have failed to curb the violence.

The growing civilian defense movement began last year in Michoacan in a bid to clear the area of the Knight Templar cartel members.

Towns formed the vigilante groups, arguing that local police were unable to stop the cartel’s murders, kidnappings and extortion rackets.

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

Back to top button