The uneasy peace in Mexico’s Michoacán region was shattered last week when Zacán villagers discovered the severed heads of four residents in plastic bags left on a small terrace near the local church. [borderlandbeat.com pieced together a report from Facebook posts.] The Knights Templar cartel killed these innocents to remind the Mexican freedom fighters who’s in charge – and it ain’t federal troops (seen standing near the dumped body parts, in the picture after the jump). Zacán’s not far from Tingüindín. Two days two days previous, security forces discovered a mass grave in Tingüindín containing at least 20 bodies. And now . . .

The vigilante “self-defense” groups in Mexico’s Michoacán state on Saturday entered Apatzingan, the stronghold of the Knights  Templar drug cartel, carrying no weapons but escorted by troops and federal police.

Carrying no weapons? I highly doubt that. Or if that’s the case I doubt that the civilians joining the military were official representatives of the self-defense groups. That’s because . . .

The LA Times story fails to take account of previous reports in which the military was already in control of Apatzingan. Or the antagonistic relationship between the Mexican freedom fighters/revolutionaries/armed self-defense groups/vigilantes/whatever-you-call-’em and the Mexican government – who have done sweet FA to rid Michoacán of cartel atrocities.

Quite the opposite. The cartels – Knights Templar and the rest – have a cozy, mutually profitable relationship with the Mexican government and, it should be said, Uncle Sam. This is not a simple fight between the self-defense groups and the Mexican government against the drug thugs. As the revolutions leaders know well enough.

Decapitated heads in Zacan (courtesy borderlandbeat.com)

Anyone who believes that the revolutionaries will lay down their arms in response to the Mexican government’s “escort” into Apatzingan, their promise to rid the area of cartel influence and the recently announced decision to pour tax money into the region is dreaming. “No one is disarming,” self-defense leader Dr José Manuel Mireles told elpais.com [before the move into Apatzingan].

“At the moment, there appears to be that intention after the federal government and the state authorities announced that they are taking hold of the situation – something that we had been demanding when we organized ourselves last February. But all during that time, state officials, instead of helping out, were the ones who were fanning the flames.

“In fact, they attacked us more than they did the Templarios. They have already gone into action and announced two arrests, but we haven’t even any evidence of the first person who was detained – El Toro. He was the person who was in charge of the Tepalcatepec square, the biggest rapist of them all. He would rape four or five women from the same household and nobody could stop him.”

Here’s another disturbing development from the LA Times:

Though some of the vigilantes appear to be sincerely interested in ridding their state of organized crime, there is widespread concern that others may be fighting a proxy war on behalf of a rival drug cartel called the Jalisco New Generation.

Late last month, Atty. Gen. Jesus Murillo Karam said that some of the arms being used by the vigilantes were being supplied by the rival drug gang.

That sounds like a pre-excuse for slaughtering the “vigilantes”: they’re secret cartel members. An article on the rise of the revolutionaries in yesterday’s telegraph.co.uk offers more dark foreshadowing:

For some in Mexico, the vigilantes inspire optimism. But others fear the self-defence squads may only damage further Mexico’s shaky rule of law, and that justice at the barrel of a gun will spread.

Hello? How else is justice dispensed? Anyway, what, pray tell, does the U.S. State Department have to say about any of this? Nothing. Then again, they armed the Sinaloa cartel through operation Fast & Furious and other government policies and programs. What do you expect? Save more bloodshed. Even so . . .

Despite the risks Reginaldo Morales, a middle-aged lime farmer clad in a bullet-proof vest, said he would rather die fighting than live in fear of the cartel thugs kidnapping, murdering and raping.

“We are stopping the gangsters from going into our town, where they can hurt women and children,” said Mr Morales, a father of four. “Yes I have killed some of them in shoot-outs. But they are evil men and God will forgive me for that.”

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34 COMMENTS

  2. Boy do I want to join the Vigilantes, They seem to be doing some good for their country and us. However I believe I would be shot on sight by both sides. 🙁

  3. Wouldn’t it be awesome if a privately held gun buy back program then turned around and donated the guns to these people?

    • Just ask for volunteer donations. Of course, then you’d have the problem of getting them halfway across Mexico, the state department objecting to you taking them out of the country, and the BATFE(and Texas bonfires) demanding you have an FFL/revoking an FFL you already have on some contrived excuse.

      • Uhh, have you ever heard of Eric Holder? It’s easier than you think!

  4. “No weapons”.
    They HAD to include that part. They HAD to stay on-message.
    The news stories on mass-shootings from gun-controlled Russia…
    The “self-defense” squads pushing back drug-dealers and killers in Mexico through use of arms…
    The ever-increasing trend of peaceful “redneck gun-nut” population centers vs. lawless liberal strongholds…
    The tide seems to be turning, my friends. That’s why the hatred coming from the gun-banners is so strong. They’re seeing armed citizens defending innocent life starkly contrasted with continued killing in “gun-free” cities and nations, and this pattern is getting noticeable enough to break through their rhetoric. They’re starting to panic. They see their message crumbling as facts and realism intrude into their carefully crafted campaign of disinformation.
    We haven’t won quite yet, but the scoreboard is leaning heavily in our favor. Keep up the pressure.

    • Yup. I hate to use the word “sweet” about a nightmare situation, but there it is. Right in the gun-grabbers’ sweaty little faces.

    • “They’re starting to panic. They see their message crumbling as facts and realism intrude into their carefully crafted campaign of disinformation.” I disagree, they are not panicking. Anti 2A people are very good at being willfully ignorant. They won’t see their message crumbling, until long after it already collapsed.

      • That’s right; the anti’s message just becomes shriller, and is also readily adopted by their friends in the media who are their committed allies.

        They will never see the fallacy of their logic nor the misplaced reliance they have on disarmament, it’s not part of their psychosocial make up.

  5. Why isn’t Obumbo (and Holder) arming this “Mexican Spring”?

    Perhaps if they would claim to kneel in the direction of Mecca a couple times a day?

  7. If Mexicans can begin to see the vital worth of guns in the hands of honest villagers, it might provide an example to those immigrating to the US. Southwest Mexico is providing exactly the context needed to understand how the value of a living and uncorrupted 2nd amendment arises repeatedly. I think for many Americans it is difficult to imagine corruption sliding into violence, only to be tamed by the “little people.” A living lesson is in front of our eyes.

  8. Yes, lay down your arms & turn yourself in, you will be treated fairly. Where have I heard that before? Oh yeah, Snowden, ha ha ha ha, Randy

  9. What amount of the illegal immigrant population do you think would NOT exercise their 2A rights if a full amnesty was instituted? I am not advocating this, just wondering the level of Schadenfreude I would have if this happened…. There is a significant Catholic population involved as well in the amnesty issue, so some 11 million new 2A/anti abortion advocates may not vote for the progs like they hope… Unintended consequences….

  11. Just regular people wanting to live there lives and be free from being murdered by the gangs because they were disarmed by their government or to be arbitrarily arrested or killed by government enforcers acting on behalf of a bunch of corrupt and power mad politicians.

    Oh; Yeah, I was talking about Mexico’s government.

  12. When people’s head’s are being chopped off, you don’t lay down arms, you lay the ones responsible out. Mr. Morales give them hell and then some!

  17. “But others fear the self-defence squads may only damage further Mexico’s shaky rule of law, and that justice at the barrel of a gun will spread.”

    What “shaky” rule of law? Mexico has been ruled by the gun and the hidalgos since it was founded. What bothers the media and the ruling classes is that the “peasants” are establishing their own rule of law. They are simply going back to the words of their last true revolutionary, Emiliano Zapata: “¡Prefiero morir de pie que vivir siempre arrodillado!” (“It is better to die on my feet than to continue living on my knees.”)

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