In case you’ve just joined us, Mexican civilians have formed citizen militias to protect themselves from cartels and the Mexican military. These autodefensas are armed — illegally — with whatever firearms they can scrounge. Neither the cartels nor the Mexican government are OK with that; both prefer a compliant populace. In response to the autrodefensas, the Mexican government formed the fuerza rural – a sham force of government-paid and controlled “security force.” The autodefensas could either join or be tortured/die. The cartels adopted a similar policy, minus the join bit. The following story from borderlandbeat.com chronicles a hit on the citizen militia and the government’s [non] response . . .
Apatzingán, Michoacán, April 23, 2016— Three men traveling onboard a truck and who were about to pull out of a gas station in Cuatro Caminos were massacred by a group of heavily armed men. The dead were allegedly former autodefensas of the city of Apatzingán, according to reports from the authorities at the scene. Two of the men died on site while the other one died on the way to the hospital. The former autodefensas were armed with AK-47’s.
It was learned that around 6:00 hours, a Chevrolet Silverado, with California license plates, was pulling out of the gas station Mafer, located at kilometer 153 in the Siglo XXI Freeway, however only managed to move a few meters before being intercepted by the armed group. The armed group sprayed them with bullets at close range.
Members of the federal police arrived at the scene and cordoned off the area. Minutes later, personnel from the Regional Prosecutor’s Office of Apatzingán arrived, who conducted the removal of the bodies and collected dozens of spent shell casings of different calibers.
Even though the corporation recently stopped existing, local people said that the deceased claimed to be members of the Fuerza Rural and that is how they identified themselves with the population, however, RED 113 inquired about the subject to sources of the Ministry of Public Security and they denied that the deceased were discharged from the corporation or ever had belonged to it; they were former autodefensas, they said.
So that’s that then. The slaughter of the innocents — and the not so innocent — continues.