“Mexico has disarmed more than 1,200 local police officers suspected of colluding with drug traffickers in Michoacan state and arrested 38 members of the notorious Knights Templar drug cartel active in the region,” AFP reports. ” [Federal security official Alejandro Rubido] Garcia said federal forces have taken control of 27 municipalities in the western Mexico state and disarmed 1,209 of the local police officers. The officers will undergo investigations, Garcia said. They are accused of colluding with gangs by the vigilante militias that have taken up arms in recent months in restive Michoacan state.” So the Mexican federales are cleaning-out the cartels and their police allies to placate the local militia. “The capture of Vasquez Macias and other Knights Templar leaders was among the conditions the vigilante groups demanded before giving in to government demands they turn over their own weapons.” So, will they disarm? Only if they’re really stupid. After all, nature abhors el vacio.
Fight the good fight, Michoacans. I hope the Federales take down the cartel but it is no reason to disarm lest you just want another cartel to come in and take over once you’re defenseless again.
I thought that the Federales were run by the cartels.
As is usually the case, it’s complicated, and people who don’t live there are ill-equipped to comprehend it.
No, they change sides as the balance of power does and as money changes hands. The Mexican govt has been playing the cartels against each other for some time and profiting off of it, even while their own police and citizens die.
Si, senor. We have no guns now, they were all lost in an unfortunate chalupa accident on the Rio Grande. Thank you very much for getting rid of the cartel, we’ll call you if we need anything else.
Would the Federales release their cartel allies as soon as the vigilantes give up their guns?
Nahhhhhh. They’d never do that. (/sarcasm)
Mysterious jailbreak in 3… 2…
I believe its a ruse (who uses that word, right).
They will give them some rusted out pieces of junk with an AK or two thrown in while hiding the rest away.
“A ruse? Hi, it’s 1930s, can have our words, and clothes, and shitty plane back? Call you back, 1930s. And, hey, watch out for that Adolf Hitler. He’s a bad egg!”
“Oh wait, I had something for this…”
“So the Mexican federales are cleaning-out the cartels and their police allies to placate the local militia”
IMHO, that is incorrect. They are cleaning out the cartels and their police allies so they don’t look foolish, as if they can’t protect their citizens, and need to placate the local militia. Subtle difference, but since they seemed to be perfectly okay with the militia (funnily called “vigilantes” by the left-wing media) until the spotlight was focused on them.
Strictly speaking vigilante is probably correct, but then again if corruption is as bad as they say, they’re not so much taking the law into their own hands as they are restoring it altogether. Can’t say I’d blame them either, it looks like they’re effective enough or they wouldn’t be getting this attention.
The militia hold all the cards. Surrender your weapons my ass! I’d drive up to the federales commander and say, “Gee thanks for showing up. What took you so long? We have it under control El Capatain, but if you’d like to help here are our terms. You’ve brought a battalion or two of soldiers and rode in like you’re the Cavalry or something. Behind me are 750,000 pissed off, well armed locals and here’s whatcha gonna do General……!” Then I’d assign them all to mess duty and graves registration details. Federales to the rescue? Turn over the militia’s guns? PPPPPPPLEASE!
So what now? the vacuum created by disarming the police will be filled by what?-soldiers, militaries are notoriously inept and abusive when given police powers. Fired cops are gonna be pissed, likely many will do a 180 on their views of justice and take employ with their former enemies, guy has to feed his kin. The dope gangs will continue doing their thing. Civilian “vigilantes” will have to hang onto and increase their stores of armaments for the can of worms that will likely come from this.
What might the fired police do? Join the drug traffickers and kill civilians?………..oh wait……….that’s what the employed police did. I doubt being fired is really going to make much difference other than they now lack the power of the badge. Also, many of them will wind up incarcerated after this. They will be impotent as they rot in a Mexican federal prison. This has given Mexico a black eye and they’ll come down hard on the corrupt police force. Regarding the militia being abusive, was the American militia abusive to their countrymen after they helped kick the British out of the colonies? I don’t remember any history of that.
“militaries are notoriously inept and abusive when given police powers” is what I wrote, never stated anything about militias……
I stand corrected. Apologies.
I was reading an article where the head military official said: “We have no orders to go after the cartel”…. This is from 5 days ago
Maybe the Federales are just cutting out the middleman.
The Federales are as corrupt as the rest of Mexico, where every official at every level has his hand out and his eyes turned the other way. In Mexico, it’s not plomo o plata, it’s dame la plata.
Keep your guns, militiamen. You’re going to need them.
“The Federales are as corrupt as the rest of Mexico”
My initial thought was if they’re cleaning out the Knights Templar, which cartel are they backing?
Probably La Familia Michoacana which was pushed out some years ago
Restoring them to prominence.
Stay armed.
I hope they never disarm. Being disarmed is what made them vulnerable to this in the first place. If they give up their weapons, it’ll be back to business as usual in less than a year.
And the local criminals and police will want to get revenge.
Hopefully they are smart enough not to disarm. The fact that the federales are suddenly able to apprehend these clowns after years of failure just further proof that the cartels own the government at all levels – but we already knew that, and I’m sure they do, too. I’d like to see the citizens of Mexico take the power back from the government, it would be better for them, and better for our security. The government of Mexico needs to go.
I posted this earlier but I’ll reiterate. In 1993 I spent a month traveling all over Mexico with a doctor who was also born and raised in Mexico City. We went to many towns in a Cessna 182 and I asked him at some point why everyone was so poor in a county that’s so rich in natural resources like lumber, agriculture, fishing, and mineral wealth (Mexico is to silver what Saudi Arabia is to crude oil). His answer floored me and I never forgot it. He simply said, “Bad Government”. This was over 20 years ago before the drug gangs seized so much power. He was a very smart and humble man who had lived many years in Mexico and the USA. Things are much worse now. I wouldn’t even consider a trip to Tijuana now.
Quintana Roo was once my home away from home. While there were a lot of fun things to do, what I enjoyed most was the wonderful people. I also did a lot of business in Mexico City, which I liked very much. Now, I won’t go anywhere in Mexico. Period.
Mexicans deserve better. I hope that they can take back their country. Then again, I hope we can take back ours.
Cenotes?
Did the federales ask for directions from the invisible swordsman too?
The local militias are digging out guns that they’ve had “squirreled away for years”, according to a previous article published here today. Do the federales seriously think they’re going to completely disarm this time, too? I mean, I know they’re not exactly known for being the brightest crayons in the box, but they can’t be that naive, right?
Oh well. All the better if they do, actually. That way, the militias will still have something to shoot the drug thugs with as soon as those crooked-ass feds let them go or help them escape from prison.
They had to disarm them, they were losing their cartel paychecks..
Federales got tired of having to split the bribes (la mordida) with the locals I guess.
5 miles from me in Ciudad Juarez, the crime rate went way down after the Mexican Army was moved out. Only averaging 1 murder per day now. Was 8/day a few years ago (same year that El Paso had 7 for the entire year). Is there some way of taking everybody out of Mexico and just starting over?
Small Nuke… ! and restock the pond in 10.000 yrs.
Oh now I did it, that Senorita Fern is gona wana to choot me in the back AGAIN!
Never forget…he pack a gun!
Hard to tell one ‘gang’ from another over there.
Hard to see how this ends well now. Government needs to stop being so pathetic so the vigilantes can actually trust someone to work with.
The fired cops down there will just cross the border to get there retirement from obama and commiefornia.
And since they’re former LEOs they can retool.
A show of force to placate the fears of the world community is all that was. It’s going to get a lot uglier before it gets better down south. The richest people in Mejico besides the oil cartel are the drug cartels. The drug cartels have lots of US dollars, worth a lot more than pesos. They are not going away that easily.
Unless we raise the minimum wage, more and more Americans will be competing for the pittance the migratory workers get. The only saving grace in the US is the while the rich get richer there are more poor Americans to vote the rich out of power.
Anyone remember when Chapo Guzman was captured by the Guatemalan military, who handed him over to Mexico……….ONLY TO BE LET GO!
Honestly the Mexican military is the least corrupt of all the mexi establishments, however it is still under the gov’t PRI thumb.
Hide those guns and ammo , soon they might be needed again ,like when the government starts punishing those who took up arms to begin with to get their country back from the evil doers . Be prepared and ready. Keep your powder dry.
My first thought was the Federales didn’t like the competition for cartel jobs. Wait until the military decide they want a cut as well.