Posted on 08/21/2015 8:37:08 PM PDT by Citizen Zed
When the Knights Templar took their land, hoping to control the lucrative market for crops such as limes and avocados, the vigilantes piled into beat-up trucks, rumbled across the state’s mountainous Tierra Caliente region and used pistols, rifles and even rakes to take back their farms. The autodefensas helped restore a sense of order to a region that has suffered considerably during Mexico's brutal drug war, a conflict that’s left an estimated 100,000 or more dead since it began in 2006.
Despite the vigilantes' success against the drug gangs — and some would say because of it — the government had seen enough. The autodefensas were a heavily armed force outside the army’s control, and some feared they could easily morph into yet another cartel. Over the past year, the vigilante groups have fallen apart as the federal government has persuaded some among their ranks to join the police, which critics say was effectively an attempt at a payoff. Those who tried to keep the autodefensas together haven’t been successful either. In late July, Verdía, one of the last vigilante leaders still operating in the area, was arrested by Mexican soldiers in the town of La Placita on charges of theft, illegal arms possession and murder.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsweek.com ...
some feared they could easily morph into yet another cartel
Limes and avocados? OMG, a guacamole cartel?
The Chalupa Brigade...
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