“The [Mexican] government said it had reached an agreement with vigilante leaders to incorporate the armed civilian groups into old and largely forgotten quasi-military units called the Rural Defense Corps,” yahoo.com reports. “Vigilante groups estimate their numbers at 20,000 men under arms. The twin announcements may help the administration of President Enrique Pena Nieto find a way out of an embarrassing situation in the western state of Michoacan, where vigilantes began rising up last February against the Knights Templar reign of terror and extortion after police and troops failed to stop the abuses.” Failed as in aided and abetted the cartels’ reign of terror in return for millions of narco-dollars. Which kinda makes you wonder about the future of this “partnership.” And for good reason . . .
Vigilante leaders will have to submit a list of their members to the Defense Department, and the army will apparently oversee the groups, which the government said “will be temporary.” They will be allowed to keep their weapons as long as they register them with the army.
It’s a trap! No really, it is. Registration => confiscation => tyranny => mass murder. Again. Still. After more than two decades of terror, I don’t think the Mexican revolutionaries are gonna buy into this. Then again . . .
Misael Gonzalez, a leader of the self-defense force in the town of Coalcoman, said leaders had accepted the government proposal. But the nuts-and-bolts “are still not well defined,” he added. “We won’t start working on the mechanisms until tomorrow.”
Vigilante leader Hipolito Mora said the agreement also allows those who qualify to join local police forces. “The majority of us want to get into the police … I never imagined myself dressed as a policeman, but the situation is driving me to put on a uniform.”
So they’d sell their freedom to wear the uniform of their oppressors (and feed their families)? Seems so. But this story is far from over. What’s the bet the Knights Templar leader arrested to appease the revolutionaries was “captured” – without a shot fired – with the cartels’ consent? Wheels within wheels, in a country that continues to spin out of control. [h/t JE]