Small Wars Journal

El Centro

Mexico Starts Disarming Vigilantes (Updated)

Tue, 01/14/2014 - 3:22pm

Mexico Starts Disarming Vigilantes - BBC

Mexican security forces sent to quell unrest in the western state of Michoacan have started disarming local vigilante groups, state officials say.

The "self-defence groups" took control of a number of towns in an effort to drive out members of a drug cartel…

Read on.

Mexico Forces in Deadly Clash With Vigilantes - Associated Press

The Mexican government moved in to quell violence between vigilantes and a drug cartel in Michoacan state, but the campaign turned deadly early Tuesday with a confrontation between soldiers and civilians who witnesses say were unarmed.

There were widely varying reports of casualties, but Associated Press journalists saw the bodies of two men said to have died in the clash, and spoke to the family of a third man who was reportedly killed in the same incident. No women or children died, contrary to earlier reports by the spokesman of a self-defense group…

Read on.

Injured Leader of Mexican Anti-cartel Militia Vows to Go On by Joshua Partlow, Washington Post

More than a week after surviving a plane crash, the injured Mexican militia leader Jose Manuel Mireles rejected the government’s call for his movement to disarm, vowing to fight on until the drug cartel leaders in his area have been arrested and the state of Michoacan establishes the rule of law.

Mireles, a 55-year-old surgeon who leads the militia movement that has spread rapidly over the past year across Michoacan and seized territory from the Knights Templar drug cartel, spoke to reporters late Monday night from a safe house after receiving treatment at an upscale private hospital in Mexico City…

Read on.

Hemispheric Defense in the 21st Century

Thu, 01/09/2014 - 4:02pm

Hemispheric Defense in the 21st Century

January 9, 2014

Andrew F. Krepinevich and Eric Lindsey
Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments

While the Obama administration has accorded top priority to preserving U.S. security interests in the Western Pacific and Middle East, it can ill afford to overlook worrisome trends in Latin America, as its major geopolitical competitors, including Iran, China and Russia, seek to expand their influence in the region.

See Chapter 3: The Mexican Crisis of 2022