Michoacán is a Mexican state west of Mexico City. Its capital and largest city is Morelia. Near Morelia is Pátzcuaro, an upscale town. It has a coast line, between (but not including) Manzanillo and Ixtapa/Zihuatanejo; Lázaro Cárdenas is a major port.
The rural areas west of Pátzcuaro, known as Tierra Caliente, have been controlled by the Knights Templar (Cabelleros Templarios), a narco-terrorist gang, since 2011. Until recently, the rural people have been victims of murder, rape, kidnapping, and extortion at the hands of the Knights Templar.
Recently, however, the people have decided to fight back, following the example of rural people in Chiapas and Guerrero. (Click here for an Al Jazeera documentary about what happened in Guerrero.) They organized a local self-defense force, usually referred to as vigilantes or autodefensas.
It's important to understand here that the word vigilante doesn't have the same meaning in Spanish as in English. When the English-language press talks about "vigilates", it creates an image of armed men on horseback taking the law into their own hands. The Spanish word vigilante connotes something much less sinister; it means "being vigilant". It could apply to a lifeguard at a swimming pool. For example, Neighbourhood Watch groups in Mexico are called Vecinas Vigilantes.
The autodefensas effort in Michoacán was, for a while, regarded as foolhardy, because these campesinos armed with shotguns were going up against narco-terrorists armed with state-of-the-art automatic weaponry. However, press reports from late in the week of January 12 revealed that the vigilantes were winning. They occupied city halls, and arrested police who had been siding with the narco-terrorists. The narcos were pushed back into the town of Apatzingán, and the vigilantes had it surrounded.
Then, Mexico's Federal government sent in troops. They arrested two leaders of the Knights Templar, but they also killed four vigilantes, one of them an 11-year-old child. Their objective was to disarm the vigilantes, instead of helping them finish the job of putting the Knights Templar out of business. The leader of the vigilantes, Dr. José Manuel Mireles Valverde, who went to Mexico City in order to tell their side of the story, is under police protection; he agreed with the Federal government that the vigilantes should lay down their arms.
In one town, Nuevo Italia de Ruiz, the army was opposed by the autodefensas, who succeeded in disarming the army.
The accusation has been made that the vigilantes are actually allies of a rival narco-terrorist group. This doesn't hold water; if this were the case, the vigilantes would have better weapons.
A Mexican online television station, Rompeviento Televisión, has made a 45-minute documentary about the autodefensas. Unfortunately, it was completed before the siege of Apatzingán.
Story by Richard Grabman at The Mex Files: Michoacán
Story by Randal C. Archibold the New York Times: A Quandary for Mexico as Vigilantes Rise