Upon assuming office in December 2006, former Mexican president Calderon ordered the deployment of 4000 troops to his home state Michoacan. The objective was to strengthen the rule of law and restore control over a region deemed lost to the drug lords. Seven years and several waves of reinforcements later, it is still unclear who rules Michoacan.

The Rise of the Vigilantes

The state of Michoacan, located in southwest Mexico, has played a central role throughout Mexico’s violent history. Michoacan has always been a difficult area to subdue. Once home to the Purepechas, who fought ferociously against the Spanish, it has since then been the birthplace of a number of prominent revolutionaries who fought for independence. Today, this rebellious spirit lives on within its inhabitants. Farmers, ranches, doctors and businessmen took to arms in protest against the abuses of drug lords and the incompetence of the government. In the words of Dr. Mireles, one of the vigilante leaders,

We assumed a responsibility that was not ours, because for more than twelve years no one assumed it.

In blue: Dr. Mireles, moral leader of the vigilantes - credits to Claroscuro

In mid-January of this year, when the current Mexican president, Peña Nieto, ordered the military and Federal Police to replace some of the local law enforcement authorities, they encountered a problem: disarming the vigilantes. Vigilantes thrive because of the gaping power vacuum, and for many of the locals they have more legitimacy than their own local police force. While more than a thousand local policemen have been disarmed, the Federal Police has been working together with the vigilante groups to provide a legal framework for the latter.

Institutional Deterioration

To comprehend the vigilante uprising it is necessary to grasp the level of deterioration of local institutions. The disarmament of 27 municipal police forces has strong implications. Furthermore, opposition senator Calderon, sister to former President Calderon, has accused the Governor of Michoacan of having links to the Knights Templar. The long term presence of drug cartels has engrained them as part of Mexico’s culture, part of day to day life. The Knights Templar were able to set their own taxes, production quotas, and generally abuse the locals in many ways before triggering the rise of vigilantes rule.

The drug cartels have won over more than a couple of politicians, and in many cases entire communities. The Knights Templar were originally supported by the locals, as they were founded to counter kidnappings and drug dealers. Cartels normally also engage in some sort of social responsibility which can vary from building chapels to providing aid relief during natural disasters. Cartel leaders have won a place within popular culture in the form of ballads about their achievements and their rise out of poverty. But in a country with more than 60 million people living under the poverty line, glorifying these isolated “success” stories perpetrates poisonous myths and illusions.

The Danger

When Calderon originally sent troops into Michoacan in 2006, he was attempting to bring down the infamous cartel of “La Familia Michoacan”. “La Familia” started out as a group of vigilantes, which soon came to perpetrate the same human abuses they had been fighting to eradicate. The Knights Templar represent the remnants of that cartel. While vigilantes might currently be working against the Knight Templar that can change. A look into Colombia’s history reveals that the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) were largely constituted by members of “Convivir”, previously legal paramilitary groups. Moreover, questions must be raised regarding the origin of the high tech weaponry and vehicles of some vigilante groups. Rivaling cartels would definitely benefit from weakening the local cartels, and the intentions of vigilantes must thus be intensely scrutinized.

In between the feds and vigilantes, that’s how you live in Michoacan

Looking Forward

The drug cartels’ penetration of public institutions and politics in Michoacan is a convoluted problem which will require major efforts from the government and society to address. President Pena Nieto just unveiled his “holistic” strategy to restore stability to the State, which will hopefully yield better results than Calderon’s Operation Michoacan. Curiously, in his last address to the UN General Assembly, Calderon asked the UN to assess the progress and limits of the prohibitionist approach to drugs. Calderon is not the only former Mexican President open to exploring alternatives: Vicente Fox and Ernesto Zedillo supported the outright legalization of drugs. The last three presidents of Mexico probably understand the magnitude of this problem better than most; and Mexican politicians should be looking south to see whether the Uruguayan experiment can be applied at home.

Written by Gerhard Favela Perez