I'm pleased to see some good reporting on the subject about the community self-defense groups (autodefensas) in Michoacán. There is a lot of propaganda in the corporate media right now regarding the autodefensas. Papers such as the LA Times and Washington Post are calling them "vigilante groups" to give the image of random groups of people running around with guns and arbitrarily shooting people they don't like, and is talking about how the government is coming in to "restore peace".
First of all, regarding the term "vigilante", these groups are not random individuals with guns "taking the law into their own hands". They are well-organized groups of trusted/respected citizens who are chosen by and controlled by democratic community assemblies. These community assemblies have decided that they want the cartels out of town. They have also decided that the police and government are controlled by the cartels, and so they need to go as well. So these aren't some random gang that decided to take over the town. This is where the members of the town got together and decided that they wanted to take their town back from the cartels. This movement for self-determination and community self-defense is spreading like wildfire, in dozens of towns across southern Mexico.
Second, regarding the military coming in to "restore peace" -- they are talking about the "peace" of living under constant terror from the cartels controlling these towns, people being tortured and beheaded, laws made by corrupt politicians and cops that work for the cartels. This is what the military is coming in to restore. The drug cartels, the rich, and the Mexican government cannot be considered as separate groups -- at the top, you have the same people benefiting from all three. These criminal elites are terrified about what is happening in Michoacán -- people taking back community power by force, kicking out the cops and governments that give the cartels/rich their power. This is why there is suddenly this wave of propaganda coming out of the corporate media in both Mexico and the U.S. trying to paint these groups as "vigilantes". This is why the Mexican government is sending in the military to restore the "order" of their criminal syndicates controlling the towns. When you hear the corporate media tell you that the Mexican army is coming in to "restore order", know that this is code for the cartel-dominated army coming in to put the cartels back in charge of these towns, and brutally kill all of the people who tried to take back their own communities.
So I think it's important that when we see people sharing these propaganda articles from the NY Times, Washington Post, LA Times, etc. regarding "vigilante groups", help them understand the reality of the situation. Deconstruct the propaganda for them, and promote the use of the term "community self-defense" instead of the loaded term "vigilante".
Thanks again for sharing a decent article on this. It's hard to find accurate reporting on this that isn't trying to slander what these communities are doing.
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