Michoacán Militia News: Vigilante Members Apply To Become Police In Move To 'Legalize'

Aristegui Noticias reported on Wednesday that since the Mexican government announced in January its intention to allow members of Michoacán autodefensas, or citizen militias, to “legalize” and become police, a flood of members have applied to local police departments. The news came as the federal government presented what it calls its “Michoacán Plan,” intended to give a boost to the state’s economy and stimulate infrastructure there. The lime- and avocado-producing southwestern state has for years been ravaged by drug cartels like the Knights Templars, who charge heavy extortion fees and infiltrate the criminal justice system.

The news site writes that during the presentation of the plan, Michoacán public security commissioner Alfredo Castillo said that some 523 militia members in six towns had reported to Sedena, Mexico’s national defense secretariat, in a bid to join the police force in the area. Castillo also said that since the federal government took over public security duties from the state last month in the face of autodefensa campaigns which saw the militias seizing cartel-controlled towns across the Tierra Caliente, 128 suspected organized crime members had been arrested. That includes, most recently, Dionisio Loya Plancarte or “El Tío”, a suspected Knights Templar leader.

The Los Angeles Times notes that the Michoacán Plan would allocate some $3.4 billion for a range of programs for the state, including scholarships for students, pensions, tax credits for small business owners, and infrastructure projects like highways and a new hospital. The state is the sixth-poorest in Mexico, according to data gathered in 2012, with 54 percent of the population living below the poverty line, compared to the national average of 45 percent.