![]() ![]() ![]() They have taken over the abandoned, luxurious lairs of drug bosses, posting gunmen to fend off any Knights tempted to return. “We’re doing the government’s work for them,” he added as another vigilante proudly showed off a mother of pearl handle a local artisan made for his revolver.įor now, the vigilantes have the Knights on the run. “The bad guys are killing people, that’s why we’re taking up arms,” said Fidel, the 37-year-old lime farmer turned vigilante, refusing to reveal his surname for fear of reprisal from the Knights Templar, a cult-like group that styles itself after caped medieval crusaders. ![]() Still, experts say the vigilantes’ advance in this land of valleys where avocado and lime grow and mountains peppered with meth labs and marijuana fields risks creating a security quagmire for President Enrique Pena Nieto. Since then, the security forces have turned a blind eye to the vigilantes’ movements, seeing them as a much lesser evil and possibly a useful ally against the Knights Templar. It sent troops to seize their weapons, but immediately backed off after two civilians were killed in an early clash. In violence-racked Michoacan, an impoverished agricultural state about 1-1/2 times the size of Switzerland, vigilantes are battling a cartel called the Caballeros Templarios, or Knights Templar, for control of swathes of the failing state.Īfter letting the conflict brew, the government this month vowed to assert control but its messages have been contradictory.įirst it said it helped protect a vigilante leader because he was hurting the cartel, then days later it called on his group to disarm. The two groups eye each other, a couple of vigilantes wave, and then each go about their business unimpeded. Moments later, an armored convoy of federal police passes by. The motley crew of renegades organize themselves into a neat line of pick-ups and luxury SUVs by the side of the road in the hamlet of Buenavista. A vigilante aims his weapon out of a car window while driving in a convoy with others to Poturo December 29, 2013. ![]()
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