- Title: Mexico's Wild West: vigilante groups defy president to fight cartels
- Date: 13th September 2019
- Summary: AQUILA, MICHOACAN, MEXICO (AUGUST 22, 2019) (REUTERS) MURAL OF VIGILANTE GROUPS TRUCKS AT CHECKPOINT NEXT TO SIGN THAT READS: "WE DON'T TOLERATE CARTELS IN OUR TERRITORY" TRUCKS AT CHECKPOINT YOUNGSTERS AND MEN RESTING ON HAMMOCKS MURAL OF VIGILANTE GROUPS WITH SIGN THAT READS: (Spanish) "COMMUNITY" MEN- PART OF VIGILANTE GROUP -RESTING VARIOUS OF VIGILANTE GROUPS MANNING CHECKPOINT (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) 31-YEAR-OLD GERMAN RAMIREZ, ALSO KNOWN AS COMMANDER BULL, LEADER OF VIGILANTE GROUP, SAYING: "The fact we are armed is not well seen. We are in the eye of the storm, we are visible and people get it wrong. People who have other interests other than looking after the town, what about them? Are they good?" VARIOUS OF RAMIREZ DURING INTERVIEW (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) 31-YEAR-OLD GERMAN RAMIREZ, ALSO KNOWN AS COMMANDER BULL, LEADER OF VIGILANTE GROUP, SAYING: "I'm not worried. I do get angry and we are not afraid. Many complain about the federal government. Until now the federal government has not bothered us." COAHUAYANA, MICHOACAN, MEXICO (AUGUST 22, 2019) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF HECTOR ZEPEDA, ALSO KNOWN AS COMMANDER TETOS, LEADER OF VIGILANTE GROUP DURING INTERVIEW / SHIELD, WEAPONS ON WALL (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) HECTOR ZEPEDA, ALSO KNOWN AS COMMANDER TETOS, LEADER OF VIGILANTE GROUP, SAYING: "We want them to come and take over security. Whether it be the National Guard, whoever it is but it should be the government, who takes over security and that they care about us as citizens. That we care about them. That they care about my security, about my neighbour's security, everyone's security. I don't want them to come and say: 'I'm going to take care of security.' They arrive with a load of vehicles and then tomorrow they are no longer here. That would leave the door open to criminals." MANZANILLO, COLIMA, MEXICO (AUGUST 22, 2019) (REUTERS) MANZANILLO MAYOR, GRISELDA MARTINEZ DURING INTERVIEW (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) MANZANILLO MAYOR, GRISELDA MARTINEZ, SAYING: "Everything enters through the port (Manzanillo), it's no secret, even things that shouldn't. We are really a border, even though we are not considered that way. We are a border. Manzanillo is a border. The sea is the limit of that border but everything gets in through there. There are groups who started fighting for control of the port and everything they could move through there."
- Embargoed: 27th September 2019 20:37
- Keywords: Vigilante groups Mexico cartels security Michoacan
- Location: AQUILA & COAHUAYANA & LA HUERTA, MICHOACAN/ MANZANILLO, COLIMA/ AYUTLA, GUERRERO, MEXICO
- City: AQUILA & COAHUAYANA & LA HUERTA, MICHOACAN/ MANZANILLO, COLIMA/ AYUTLA, GUERRERO, MEXICO
- Country: Mexico
- Topics: Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA001AWHSTAF
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Surrounded by armed men, Commander "Toro" said Mexicans taking the law into their own hands in the western state of Michoacan will not heed government calls to lay down arms because it would leave them at the mercy of violent gangs.
Toro - real name German Ramirez - was once a school teacher in Santa Maria Ostula, an impoverished, largely indigenous village in the municipality of Aquila in western Michoacan.
But he says that after suspected cartel hitmen kidnapped and shot dead his father six years ago, he found a new vocation training neighbours to resist brutal gangs fighting for control of the market for synthetic drugs and other narcotics.
The re-emergence of dozens of so-called self-defense groups that rose to prominence under the previous administration has exposed shortcomings in President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's strategy to bring down record levels of violence.
Some 17,614 homicides were registered between January and July this year, putting the death toll on track to surpass last year's record. Of those, 809 were in Michoacan, 13% more than in the same period the previous year, official data show.
Ramirez says he has more than 200 armed civilians under him patrolling highways and roads in the area, throwing out - but not killing, he says - unwanted intruders from marauding gangs.
He says local police rarely enter parts of rural Michoacan, let the self-defense groups operate and at times, even provide weapons.
The ministry for public security did not reply to requests for comment.
Lopez Obrador took office in December vowing to pursue an amnesty with criminal gangs, saying it was time to take a less confrontational approach to curbing the violence. However, he never clearly spelled out how the scheme would work.
Since then, his government has sent mixed messages about how it will deal with the vigilante groups, which are not always clearly distinguishable from criminal organizations.
In August, Lopez Obrador said the vigilante groups were outside the law and should disarm.
However, other officials have suggested that the government is negotiating with them.
The president says his newly-created National Guard, a militarized police force, will restore order.
Security experts interviewed by Reuters say vigilante forces have helped contain violence in crime-stricken areas like Michoacan. But some of them have also struck alliances with criminal gangs in exchange for weapons and protection, they add.
Ramirez, "El Toro," acknowledges that some self-defense members deviated from their original path. Some, he said, had joined criminal gangs the vigilantes are fighting.
Offensives by the CJNG to secure smuggling routes for drugs like fentanyl and illegally-mined minerals have spilled into the sparsely-populated coast of Michoacan, which is sandwiched by two major ports - Lazaro Cardenas in the south of the state, and Manzanillo, a few kilometers north into neighbouring Colima state.
"Everything enters through the port (Manzanillo), it's no secret, even things that shouldn't," said Griselda Martinez, the mayor of Manzanillo, who survived a murder attempt last month.
Last week, social media erupted with images of vigilante groups fighting against suspected CJNG forces trying to enter nearby Tepalcatepec, Michoacan. Photos and video footage showed the bloody corpses of cartel footsoldiers slumped in trucks and the sound of gunfire ringing out in remote villages.
The vigilantes say the president's pledges are falling flat.
Zepeda, "Commander Teto," who lost a brother to cartel violence six years ago, said he had no hope the government will bring peace to Mexico.
(Production: Alan Ortega, Josue Gonzalez) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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