Michoacan: Mexico Vigilantes Declare War On Drugs Cartels – Photos

MEXICO is fighting.

In these pictures, men belonging to a self-defense group formed to fight organized crime are manning a checkpoint in Paracuaro. Paracuaro residents set at least three trailer trucks on fire to protest the arrival of more than 100 vigilantes to their town in the western state of Michoacan. The burning trucks blocked roads leading to the town of artisans and lime farmers until federal police and soldiers removed them. Townspeople say they oppose the vigilante group because they are forcing young men to join them.

The vigilantes are waging war on the Knights Templar drug cartel. The vigilantes have seized towns.

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A man belonging to the Self-Defense Council of Michoacan, (CAM), kneels next to his gun at a checkpoint in Nueva Italia, Mexico, Monday, Jan. 13, 2014. A day earlier the self-defenses encountered resistance as they tried to rid the town of the Knights Templar drug cartel while the government announced today that federal forces will take over security in a large swath of a western Mexico that has been hard hit by violence. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

Men carry the coffin that contain the remains of Mario Perez as they prepare to bury him in Antunez, Mexico, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2014. Perez was one of the three civilians killed a day earlier by federal forces after they tried to disarm men belonging to a self-defense group that is fighting to rid the Knights Templar drug cartel in a region of Michoacan state known as Tierra Caliente.

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The vigilantes say they are liberating territory in the so-called Tierra Caliente and are aiming for the farming hub of Apatzingan, said to be the cartel’s central command. Mexican military troops are staying outside the town and there are no federal police in sight.

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Self-defense group spokesman Estanislao Beltran speaks at a press conference in Tepalcatepec, Michoacan state, Mexico, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2014. Federal forces struggled to bring order to western Mexico as vigilantes battled a vicious drug cartel, but the drug gangs appeared to be carrying business as usual Wednesday; in the city of Apatzingan, attackers doused a pharmacy with gasoline, ordered employees out and set it afire, apparently to enforce a drug cartels orders that no businesses should open. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

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A federal police patrols the entrance to Apatzinga

Juana Perez cries besides the coffin of his son Rodrigo Benitez, 2, killed in the recent fighting

A house is riddled with bullet holes after clashes between the Self-Defense Council of Michoacan, (CAM), and members of the Knights Templar drug cartel a day earlier in Nueva Italia, Mexico, Monday, Jan. 13, 2014. A day earlier the self-defenses encountered resistance as they tried to rid the town of the Knights Templar drug cartel while the government announced today that federal forces will take over security in a large swath of a western Mexico that has been hard hit by violence. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

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