In the beginning, and until a year ago, a drug cartel called the Knights Templar ruled over the peaks, valleys, and coastline of Michoacán, on the Pacific coast of southwestern Mexico. The Knights controlled not only the poppy and marijuana plantations, and the meth superlabs in the hills, and the cocaine routes up from the coast; they also controlled large shares of the lime and avocado crop, and, most important, they mined precious metals from the sierra and exported them to China.
The Knights took other liberties. They extorted protection money from local business owners, condoned the occasional kidnapping, and expropriated land and livestock. The cartel had infiltrated the local and state governments to the extent that there was no outlet for the buildup of popular resentment. Then, in February 2013, bands of men, many of them lime farmers, formed dozens of armed “self-defense guards” across the state to combat the Knights.
Read Full Article »