Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Soldiers flood western Mexico to protect towns

Mexican army soldiers enter the town of La Ruana, Michoacan, Mexico, Monday, May 20, 2013. Residents of western Mexico towns who endured months besieged by a drug cartel are cheering the arrival of hundreds of Mexican army troops. Hundreds of people in the state of Michoacan have taken up arms to defend their villages against drug gangs, a vigilante movement born of frustration at extortion, killings and kidnappings in a region wracked by violence. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)
coalcoman, mexico ( ap ) — mexicos top security officers promised tuesday that a brand new federal offensive out to rescue towns besieged via the knights templar drug cartel in western michoacan state would keep till there's security and peace for those state residents.

interior secretary miguel osorio chong and his national security team met with native officers within the state capital of morelia with a time of escalating tensions in michoacan, where communities mistrustful of state authorities are creating their own personal vigilante forces for protection against the cartels.

other then osorio chong provided few details or an explanation of how sending troops out to michoacan would work any higher than it had within the past. then president felipe calderon made a similar move when he launched a nationwide offensive against drug cartels in late 2006.

the distinction will be the strategy, osorio chong same. there will just be a central command, shut coordination between state and federal security... while a system of intelligence that could permit us to relocate forward.

he failed to answer each time a reporter asked for specific dollar amounts or new programs behind the effort.

michoacan will be the mexican state most visibly dominated by a drug cartel.

gunmen in vehicles marked just when using the knights templar symbol, a red cross, roam the countryside, burning businesses and homes of anyone who refuses to pay for them protection cash.

the cartel has boldly marked its territory by building small roadside chapels out to saint nazario, a fallen leader on your quasi-religious drug cartel who was killed utilizing a battle with police in 2010.

as convoys of troopers rode into your steamy territory called tierra caliente late monday, they will passed the remains of chapels destroyed by native self-defense teams that sprang up in february out to fight the cartel.

within the town of coalcoman, troopers sped past the still-smoldering remains of at the very least 3 sawmills torched via the cartels gunmen last week after that town rose up against them. they will too passed burned-out hulks of 2 trucks while a passenger bus set afire by gunmen by the highway outside town being a warning out to anyone who tried out to bring provides or reinforcements in.

coalcoman was the newest of many communities out to kind an armed self-defense group out to kick out the knights templar cartel and finish their extortion racket.

they will demanded we pay 120 pesos ( about $10 ) for any square meter of wood we sold, same possibly one of the sawmill owners whose business was burned. gunmen torched the mills that didnt pay, same the owner, who asked not that ought to be named for worry of reprisals.

native avocado growers were charged 2, 000 pesos ( about $175 ) for any hectare of orchards they will owned.

the man who charged you'd say it was actually cash for our company. they will didnt say the name on your cartel, recalled one resident on your town of buenavista, who later battled the cartel. however if you simply didnt pay, the trucks when using the red crosses would come up and commence killing folks.

like most cartel opponents, the man wouldnt provide his name for worry of reprisals.

government intervention till now has actually been against the community patrols. a few 40 constituents of vigilante patrols were arrested in april after the govt accused them of having links out to a rival drug cartel, jalisco nueva generation. townspeople deny that.

still, residents of la ruana lined up by the towns main street monday out to cheer the arrival on your troopers.

hipolito mora, the leader on your self-defense forces in la ruana, agreed out to stop community patrols and let the army take over patrolling.

we reached an agreement that we both are intending to come out to our homes and work, mora told the crowd of cheering townspeople. other then i told them ( the army ) that in case they will leave us alone for in some unspecified time in the future, we are intending to come out to duty once more.

the secretary of defense, gen. salvador cienfuegos, same the vigilante teams had disappeared when troops arrived.

its a really complicated problem, as a result of there will be a few who definitely are taking up arms out to shield their communities among others who definitely are not, who definitely are financed by alternative teams, he same.

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