http://www.businessinsider.com/mexican-vigilantes-battle-drug-cartel-photos-2014-1

Intense Photos Of Mexican Vigilantes Battling A Drug Cartel For City Control

Mexico has long suffered blistering violence and crime at the hands of its homegrown drug cartels.

Though the Mexican government has waged war on the cartels, the effort has struggled to go anywhere. More than 90,000 people have died in the ongoing conflict.

Fed up with a corrupt police force that is often in bed with the cartels and a military that has to this point been ineffective,  some Mexicans have taken it upon themselves to fight the cartels and protect their families — with an incredible conflict happening this week in the city of Paracuaro.

Below are some pictures from what's happening south of the border:

Over the last year, vigilante groups, known as fuerzas autodefensas have sprung up all over Mexico, particularly in the southwestern state of Michoacan, an area plagued by the Knights Templar cartel.....

See link

The only reasons these cartels have the power they do is because there is such a large market for their product north of the border.

I posted this in the General category, how'd it end up in the Resistance? This has nothing to do with the Resistance.

I posted this in the General category, how'd it end up in the Resistance? This has nothing to do with the Resistance.

Is it the mexican people resisting evil?

Mexican vigilante militias battling drug-traffickers in the restive state of Michoacan said Thursday they had returned several hundred acres of land seized from villagers by the notorious Knights Templar cartel.

The symbolic handover of some 654 acres (265 hectares) of land, which included many avocado and lemon orchards, took place in the village square of Tancitaro in the Michoacan highlands.

"Citizens, businessmen, farmers, people in the communities are bewildered by these narcos. Let's get them out of our land," militia leader Estanislao Beltran told AFP at the end of the ceremony.

Civilians first took up arms in February 2013 to oust the Knights Templar from the region, saying local police were either colluding with gangs or unable to deal with the violence and extortion rackets.

Since then, officials have alleged that at least some civilian militias were backed by a cartel, with critics noting that they used unlawful assault rifles that gangs usually own.

Mexico's federal police and army troops are currently waging a major operation aimed at wresting back control of Michoacan from the Knights Templar gang.

Federal security forces have also clashed with vigilantes who have refused to give up their weapons.

Beltran said Thursday his militia group would not lay down their arms and would continue to try and recover land seized by cartels, demanding the capture of drug lords before any disarmament.

Michoacan, where much of the population lives in poverty, has become the most pressing security issue facing Mexico President Enrique Pena Nieto, who inherited a bloody war on drugs from his predecessor in 2012 that has left more than 77,000 people dead since it was launched in 2006.

http://news.yahoo.com/mexico-anti-drug-militias-return-land-villagers-002639226.html

Quote from: poche

Vigilante groups battling a powerful drug cartel in a troubled region of Mexico on Tuesday rejected a government call to lay down their arms,

If they put down their arms they will all be killed. It will be Cristeros II. Once one starts fighting, you must complete the job. Any "peace treaty" before completion will end up just like the Cristeros, dead.

So does that mean the government is acting in the interest of the drug cartels?