HomeNewsAnalysisWhy Vigilante Groups Threaten Mexico's Knights Templar
ANALYSIS

Why Vigilante Groups Threaten Mexico's Knights Templar

KNIGHTS TEMPLAR / 14 MAY 2013 BY PATRICK CORCORAN EN

Recent reports of fierce fighting between community police groups and a Mexican gang offer a window into the potential threat of vigilante groups to organized crime.

As reported by El Universal late last month, members of the Knights Templar squared off against community vigilante organizations operating in three cities in the southwestern state of Michoacan: Buenavista Tomatlan, Tepalcatepec and Apatzingan. The fighting resulted in at least 14 deaths and an unknown number of wounded.

The groups first made the news in March, when 37 members of the community police in Buenavista Tomatlan were arrested by the army. The vigilantes were subsequently accused of taking over the formal municipal police station, where they were holding the local chief and five of his officers captive, under suspicion that they were working with local drug traffickers (presumably the Knights Templar). The army also confiscated an unknown number of firearms and removed three highway blockades.

More recently, one of the leaders of the Knights Templar released a video accusing vigilantes -- called "communitarian police" in the video -- of killing innocents, and challenged them to a "death match." (Watch the video below).

InSight Crime Analysis

Such an outbreak of violence reflects the growing tension and instability stemming from the increased activity of the vigilante groups. The government has reacted both with attempts to dialogue and attempts to delegitimize the community groups. Similarly, the criminal groups threatened by their existence have responded both with attempts to delegitimize the community groups and with acts of open confrontation, such as the bloodletting mentioned above. In short, while both are unsettled, neither the government nor the criminal groups seem to have settled on the best response to such community police organizations.

For the criminals, the Knights Templar represent the group most threatened by the community vigilantes, and the latest incident reflects an ongoing campaign to push the groups from the scene.

The Knights’ efforts have included a multi-faceted public relations campaign. Last month, a series of messages, often referred to as narco-mantas, appeared around Michoacan with accusations that the vigilantes were little more than a front for the Jalisco Cartel--New Generation (known as the CJNG, for its initials in Spanish), one of the Knights’ local rivals. The mantas, which were addressed to President Enrique Peña Nieto and appeared in the state’s three largest cities, accused the community police of engaging in kidnapping and extortion.

The mantas preceded another address to the authorities, as the leader of the Knights Templar, Servando “La Tuta” Gomez, also released a video late last month, a day before the round of killings. In the 14-minute video, Gomez, who over the past several years has periodically granted interviews to address issues relating to security policy in Michoacan, called on Peña Nieto to limit the operation of the community groups. He also accused Fausto Vallejo, Michoacan’s governor and a member of Peña Nieto’s Institutional Revolutionary Party, of ignoring his security responsibilities, leaving space open for the growth of the vigilantes.

Community security groups have emerged in a number of Mexican states, but in none have they appeared to conflict so directly with the interests of established criminal groups as they have in Michoacan. This reflects something of the unique nature of the Knights Templar among the larger collection of Mexican criminal groups.

Since the community police have emerged as responses to criminality and insecurity, friction with local traffickers was inevitable, and much of the recent conflict in Michoacan stems from the two sides’ irreconcilable interests.

But it goes beyond that. Unlike many of the more established criminal groups like the Sinaloa Cartel of the Gulf Cartel, which are more overtly profit-based, the Knights have always painted themselves as the protectors of the people in Michoacan. They emerged as part of the Familia Michoacana around 2006, largely in opposition to outside groups like the Zetas; their victory left the state’s underworld in the hands of local criminals. The group operated under a moral and quasi-religious veneer, in which they outlawed drug use and kidnapping. The supposed truth behind all of this is that the Knights (and their predecessor, the Familia) are different in that they are a force for good.

The emergence of the community police groups reveals the Knights’ pretensions as empty. If the group’s self-identity were genuine, there would be no need for community groups, because the Knights alone would be enough to guarantee some modicum of security. Of course, this is silly; the Knights have intimidated and preyed on the local population as virtually all criminal groups in Mexico do. The community groups reflect a popular frustration with the Knights that is comparable to that of all populations terrorized by criminal groups. And as long as the two blocs are competing for the same space, the Knights’ assaults of the past month, both in the media and on the streets, will likely continue.

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

MARIJUANA / 6 DEC 2022

The shift from plant-based to synthetic drugs has upended the relationship between small farmers and crime groups in Mexico’s Golden…

CHAPITOS / 11 MAY 2023

Recruiters for Mexican criminal groups sway prospective members with promises of social belonging, according to a new study that highlights…

DISPLACEMENT / 11 MAY 2022

Mexico's produce industry has taken another hit from cartel violence, as tens of millions of dollars worth of peaches are…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Chemical Precursor Report continues to be a reference in the region

19 MAY 2023

For the second week in a row, our investigation into the flow of precursor chemicals for the manufacture of synthetic drugs in Mexico has been cited by multiple regional media…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime’s Chemical Precursor Report Widely Cited

THE ORGANIZATION / 12 MAY 2023

We are proud to see that our recently published investigation into the supply chain of chemical precursors feeding Mexico’s synthetic drug production has been warmly received.

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime’s Paraguay Election Coverage Draws Attention 

5 MAY 2023

InSight Crime looked at the various anti-organized crime policies proposed by the candidates in Paraguay’s presidential election, which was won on April 30 by Santiago Peña. Our pre-election coverage was cited…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in OAS, CARICOM Reports

28 APR 2023

This week, InSight Crime’s work was cited nine times in a new report by the Organization of American States (OAS) titled “The Impact of Organized Crime on Women,…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Staff Cited as Experts by International Media

21 APR 2023

This week, InSight Crime deputy editor, Juan Diego Posada, was interviewed by the Associated Press about connections between the ex-FARC mafia and Brazilian criminal groups, and…