Militia in Mexico?

[liberty]

The one great advantage that we in US have over other nations is that we could do this legally. I am referring to the establishment of militias. Vigilante groups are not legal. What is the difference between a vigilante organization and a militia? A militia is composed of volunteers raised from the community that are sworn to obey the law; failure to obey the law makes them criminals instead of militia men. Vigilantes on the other hand are a law unto themselves.

http://news.yahoo.com/mexican-vigilante ... 48151.html

Nueva Italia (Mexico) (AFP) - Vigilantes seized a drug cartel's bastion in western Mexico on Sunday, sparking a shootout as the civilian militia gained new ground in their struggle against the gang in a violence-plagued region.
Hundreds of armed civilians riding in more than 100 pickup trucks rolled into the Michoacan state town of Nueva Italia and were met by gunfire from presumed Knights Templar cartel members when they reached the municipal office.
"They shot at us from two locations and the clash lasted around an hour and a half," Jaime Ortiz, a 47-year-old farmer and vigilante leader from the town of La Ruana, told AFP.
Two members of the self-defense unit were wounded, he said, standing in the 40,000-population town's main square, surrounded by hundreds of men armed with AK-47 assault rifles, bulletproof vests and radios.
Some sidewalks were soaked in blood in the town's empty streets.
Later, on a highway leading to the town, authorities found two men hanging from a bridge, though it was not immediately known if the killings were related to the vigilantes' advance. Mexican cartels have hanged many victims in recent years.
Michoacan's growing civilian militia movement, which first emerged nearly a year ago, has seized more communities in recent weeks in its bid to rout the Templars.
The turmoil in Michoacan has become the biggest security challenge of President Enrique Pena Nieto's 13-month-old administration, which inherited a drug war that has killed more than 77,000 people in the past seven years.
Pena Nieto deployed thousands of troops and federal police to the state in May, but the reinforcements have failed to contain the violence.
Interior Minister Miguel Osorio Chong has said the self-defense units are illegal. Yet some critics charge the government is protecting them.
The Templars have accused the vigilantes of being a proxy force for the rival Jalisco New Generation drug cartel, a charge the militias deny.
The militias have now surrounded Apatzingan, a city of 123,000 people considered the main Templar stronghold in Michoacan's lime- and avocado-growing region known as Tierra Caliente, or Hot Country.
Vigilante leaders say Apatzingan is a key target because of its importance to the cartel and because it is a vital trade hub for their limes, avocados and mangos.
In October, hundreds of self-defense militia members marched into Apatzingan unarmed and fled after being welcomed with gun shots in the main square.
"It is very close. We want to seize it but we don't have a date yet. It will be in the next few days," said Hipolito Mora, a prominent vigilante leader from the town of La Ruana.
In Nueva Italia, the streets were empty, restaurants and shops closed their doors and residents shut their windows after the vigilante incursion.
The vigilantes met with the mayor and residents to explain their strategy against organized crime.
"At first we supported the Templars because we believed that they were protecting Michoacan," said a mother of two who attended the meeting and requested anonymity.
"But now the economy is very weak, they don't let us work and they charge protection money," she said.
Towns began to form vigilante forces in February 2012, saying they were fed up with the local police's inability or unwillingness to stop the cartel's murders, kidnappings and extortion rackets.
But some see the self-defense forces with suspicion.
Opponents of the vigilantes have burned trucks and buses in the past week to protest the militias' incursions in the region. The vigilantes say the protesters are coerced or paid by the Templars.
Michoacan Governor Fausto Vallejo said new "coordinated actions" with the federal government would be announced on Monday to deal with the unrest.
Critics say Michoacan has become a "failed state," with local authorities powerless to control the situation.
"What we are observing is the absence of the state, the absence of governability," the head of the National Human Rights Commission, Raul Plascencia, told El Universal newspaper.

[oldr_n_wsr]

If the gov won't do it or is incapable of doing it, then the people have to do it themselves.

[Big RR]

The problem is determining when they are actin as a bona fide militia and when they are just acting as another gang of thugs. Otherwise the public is just between a rock and a hard place.

[liberty]

The problem is determining when they are actin as a bona fide militia and when they are just acting as another gang of thugs. Otherwise the public is just between a rock and a hard place.

I started to vote “other” myself; it is not clear as of yet that this organization is in fact a militia. As the article says some claim it could be a front for another gang. I did notice that they did have some sophisticated weapons in a country where the average person is not allowed to own weapons. But it could be that they have a group wealthy supporters. That would make sense the wealthy have more to lose in an chaotic society that most. At any rate it is as the Bible says; by their fruits you shall know them.

[rubato]

The difference between "militia" and "vigilante" is the same as the difference between "terrorist" and "freedom fighter"; it only depends on the bias of the writer.


But I'm glad they're doing it. Mexico had devolved a long way into a failed state. The drug gangs just need to be rooted out, killed and stripped of their money.


yrs,
rubato

[liberty]

Interesting, the pessimistic in me says be ware of Poncho Villa, but the optimistic says it could be good sign.


Mexico anti-drug militias return land to villagers.

. . ..Tancitaro (México) (AFP) - Mexican vigilante militias battling drug-traffickers in the restive state of Michoacan said Thursday they had returned several hundred acres of land seized from villagers by the notorious Knights Templar cartel.

The symbolic handover of some 654 acres (265 hectares) of land, which included many avocado and lemon orchards, took place in the village square of Tancitaro in the Michoacan highlands.

"Citizens, businessmen, farmers, people in the communities are bewildered by these narcos. Let's get them out of our land," militia leader Estanislao Beltran told AFP at the end of the ceremony.

Civilians first took up arms in February 2013 to oust the Knights Templar from the region, saying local police were either colluding with gangs or unable to deal with the violence and extortion rackets.

Since then, officials have alleged that at least some civilian militias were backed by a cartel, with critics noting that they used unlawful assault rifles that gangs usually own.

Mexico's federal police and army troops are currently waging a major operation aimed at wresting back control of Michoacan from the Knights Templar gang.

Federal security forces have also clashed with vigilantes who have refused to give up their weapons.

Beltran said Thursday his militia group would not lay down their arms and would continue to try and recover land seized by cartels, demanding the capture of drug lords before any disarmament.

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.