Mexico anti-cartel vigilantes reject disarming in standoff with military forces
Mexico anti-cartel vigilantes reject disarming in standoff with military forces
By Mark Stevenson, Associated Press
Posted: 01/15/14, 8:54 AM PST
APATZINGAN, Mexico — Federal forces struggled to bring order to western Mexico Wednesday as vigilantes battled a vicious drug cartel that apparently tried to reassert its authority by burning a downtown pharmacy to enforce its orders that no businesses should open.
The fire attack came just two blocks from the Apatzingan city center where, the day before, dozens of federal police had paraded in an impressive display of force meant to re-impose order in a region where heavily armed vigilantes have taken up a freelance fight against the drug gang.
An employee of the pharmacy said two men pulled up with jerry cans of gasoline and began dousing the store and its merchandise. “They just told us to get out, because they were going to burn the place,” she said. The employee, part of whose hair was burned off in the attack, refused to give her name for fear of reprisals.
Owners of other stores have said that cartel gunmen have ordered them to close or risk being burned down. Another pharmacy employee, who gave her name only as Norma, said the increased federal security that arrived this week appeared to have done little to discourage the Knights Templar cartel, which has subjected local residents to systematic extortion for years.
“They don’t do anything,” she said, gesturing to the truckloads of heavily armed federal police who pulled up after the fire had been extinguished. “They come after everything has already been burned.”
More:
http://www.dailynews.com/general-news/20140115/mexico-anti-cartel-vigilantes-reject-disarming-in-standoff-with-military-forces
