All About Vigilantes

KNIGHTS TEMPLAR / 7 FEB 2014

Mexico nationals living in the United States are helping fund the country's ever-growing self-defense militias, while recent gruesome murders indicate the internal armed conflict will not be calming down any…

EXTORTION / 5 FEB 2014

Mexico mining companies extorted by criminal groups are reportedly paying Michoacan self-defense forces for protection, a development that places the groups on a disturbingly similar path to that taken by the…

MEXICO / 5 FEB 2014

Animal Politico consulted experts who explained the risks and benefits of legalizing the vigilantes in Michoacan, Mexico, following the signing of an eight-point agreement between the three levels of Mexico's…

JALISCO CARTEL / 31 JAN 2014

Authorities in Mexico have captured one of the top leaders of the Jalisco Cartel - New Generation, a significant blow to an influential criminal organization that has…

INFOGRAPHICS / 29 JAN 2014

If Mexico's government thinks that "legalizing" vigilante groups in the embattled state of Michoacan will solve its citizen security problems, it should have a closer look at the three other…

KNIGHTS TEMPLAR / 28 JAN 2014

Self-defense forces in Michoacan, Mexico have signed an agreement with federal and regional authorities, a move that raises the specter of the paramilitary death squads in Colombia, Guatemala and Peru…

COLOMBIA / 22 JAN 2014

Although the desire to recover control of regions dominated by Mexico?s Knights Templar is shared by both the state and self-defense forces, it is not clear whether the latter are…

KNIGHTS TEMPLAR / 17 JAN 2014

The violent state of Michoacan continues to be the largest stone in President Enrique Peña Nieto's shoe as he attempts to drag Mexico's image as a blood-filled crime cauldron towards…

KNIGHTS TEMPLAR / 17 JAN 2014

Mexico's federal security forces say they have taken control of security in 20 municipalities in troubled Michoacan, but there is little evidence to suggest the self-defense militias are disarming or…

MEXICO / 14 JAN 2014

The security crisis in Michoacan has reached a pivotal moment as Mexico's military attempts to disarm the self-defense militias or vigilantes that have taken over several municipalities -- a move…

PERU / 14 JAN 2014

A self-proclaimed citizen self-defense group in northern Peru has been storming brothels and whipping prostitutes, the latest example of a Latin American vigilante movement whose demarcations grow ever more…

MEXICO / 9 JAN 2014

Leaders of self-defense groups in Guerrero, Mexico have denied they are linked to guerrilla organizations, as government intelligence reports fuel fears the vigilante movement could be co-opted by leftist rebels.

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