January 27, 2014—The Self-Defense Groups that emerged in Michoacán signed an agreement today along with the federal and state government that will transform them into elements of the Rural Defense Corps, an existing organization under the control of the military. Rurales, groups of armed volunteers who were once used to keep peace in rural areas when security forces were unavailable, once existed between 1861 and 1914, during Mexico’s turbulent 19th century.

The signing achieved under the Agreement for the Federal Security Assistance of Michoacán (Acuerdo para el Apoyo Federal a la Seguridad de Michoacán), states that the government of the Republic and the state of Michoacán came to a “conviction of rebuilding peace and public order”. The Self-Defense Groups also agreed to provide a list of all of its members.

Alfredo Castillo Cervantes, commissioner for the security and integral development of Michoacán, said that the agreement, although it’s a first step, is critical in fulfilling the security strategy in the state.

Apart from Castillo Cervantes, Michoacán’s Governor Fausto Vallejo Figueroa and along with representatives from communities such as Churumuco de Morelos, Nueva Italia de Ruíz, La Huacana, Parácuaro, Tancítaro, Cualcomán de Vázquez Pallares, Aquila and Coahuayana de Hidalgo were present.

Also, the signing was witnessed by the president of Causa en Común (Common Cause) María Elena Morera de Galindo and the General Commissioner of the Federal Police, Enrique Galindo Ceballos.

Here are the eight points of the agreement reached between the governments and the Self-Defense Groups:


1. The Self-Defense Groups will be institutionalized by joining the Rural Defense Corps. The leaders of the Self-Defense Groups will present a list of all the names of its members, which will be validated with the formation of the respective documents, controlled by the SEDENA (Secretariat of National Defense). These bodies will be temporary and under the control of the authority pursuant of the applicable provisions.

2. For the protection of their communities, members of the Self-Defense Groups may form part of the Municipal Police provided they can complete the requirements of the law and have the joint signature of the City Council to be proposed for a membership of said police force.

3. The Self-Defense Groups have an obligation to register the weapons they currently posses to the SEDENA. In turn, the SEDENA must agree to provide them with the necessary tools for communication, transportation, and operation.

4. It is agreed that municipalities with conflict will conduct an audit of the use of public resources in accordance with applicable laws.

5. The rotation of Federal and Local Prosecutors will be established as well as the implementation of mobile prosecutor units.

6. The Commission of the Safety and Comprehensive Development of Michoacán will be committed in maintaining constant communication with municipal authorities in the area to offer support pursuant to the authority of said Commission.

7. The necessary arrangements will be made in the state of Michoacán, without having to leave the state, for the cases of the people who were arrested for carrying a gun and for those who are on bail pending trial.

8. In the case of the municipal and state public officials who have criminal or administrative sanctions, and that are fully proven, will have the full extent of the law applied to them.

Originally posted by Breacher:
I would also point out that while criminal groups in Mexico are usually called "drug cartels", it is often not so much the "drug business" that ticks everyone off, it is the constant robbery, murder, and thugging which goes along with the quality of people who end up controlling those businesses.

"Self-defense" groups confronting a drug cartel in the western state of Michoacan have agreed to join government law enforcement forces after months of firefights with gang members, many times as federal police and troops stood by.

The government announced Monday that it had reached a deal with vigilante leaders to incorporate the armed civilian groups into old and largely forgotten quasi-military units called the Rural Defense Corps. Vigilante groups estimate their numbers at 20,000 men under arms.

"The self-defense forces will become institutionalized, when they are integrated into the Rural Defense Corps," the Interior Department said in a statement.

Vigilante groups began springing up almost a year ago against the Knights Templar cartel, which ruled many parts of Michoacan with an iron fist, demanding extortion payments from businesses, farmers and workers. The civilian forces have gained ground in recent months, seizing a number of towns from the gang, sometimes after intense gunbattles.

The rise in fighting proved an embarrassment for President Enrique Pena Nieto, drawing criticism that the administration brought on the rise of the armed groups by failing to stop the cartel's abuses, and the government hopes the agreement will help restore order and get it back in control.

More federal police and soldiers were dispatched to the troubled region after a particularly violent weekend early in January, but the vigilantes have refused to lay down their guns and return home until all of the cartel's major leaders are arrested. Officials announced that one of the cartel's top four leaders was captured early Monday.

Even before the new agreement, police and soldiers already largely tolerated, and in some cases even worked with, the vigilantes, many of whom are armed with assault rifles that civilians are not allowed to carry.

Vigilante leaders will have to submit a list of their members to the Defense Department, and the army will apparently oversee the groups, which the government said "will be temporary." They will be allowed to keep their weapons as long as they register them with the army.

The military will give the groups "all the means necessary for communications, operations and movement," according to the agreement.

Vigilante leaders, who include farmers, ranchers and some professionals, met to discuss the agreement, but it was not yet clear for them how it would work. It wasn't known if the army would offer anyone salaries....

APATZINGAN, Mexico (AP) — Mexico's government plans on Saturday to begin demobilizing a vigilante movement of assault rifle-wielding ranchers and farmers that formed in the western state of Michoacan and succeeded in largely expelling the Knights Templar cartel when state and local authorities couldn't.

The ceremony in the town of Tepalcatepec, where the movement began in February 2013, will involve the registration of thousands of guns by the federal government and an agreement that the so-called "self-defense" groups will either join a new official rural police force or return to their normal lives and acts as voluntary reserves when called on.

The government will go town by town to organize and recruit the new rural forces.

"This is a process of giving legal standing to the self-defense forces," said vigilante leader Estanislao Beltran.

But tension remained on Friday in the coastal part of the state outside the port of Lazaro Cardenas, where other "self-defense" groups plan to continue as they are, defending their territory without registering their arms. Vigilantes against the demobilization have set up roadblocks in the coastal town of Caleta.

"We don't want them to come, we don't recognize them," vigilante Melquir Sauceda said of the government and the new rural police forces. "Here we can maintain our own security. We don't need anyone bringing it from outside."

With Saturday's ceremony, a federal commissioner now in charge of the violence-plagued state hopes to end the "wild west" chapter of the movement, in which civilians built roadblocks and battled cartel members for towns in the rich farming area called the "Tierra Caliente," or "Hot Land." (...)