Misael Gonzalez, a leader of the self-defense force in the town of Coalcoman, said leaders had accepted the government proposal. But the nuts-and-bolts “are still not well defined,” he added. “We won’t start working on the mechanisms until tomorrow.”
Vigilante leader Hipolito Mora said in a television interview that the agreement also allows those who qualify to join local police forces. “The majority of us want to get into the police … I never imagined myself dressed as a policeman, but the situation is driving me to put on a uniform.”
Latin America has been bruised by experiences with quasi-military forces, with such tolerated or legally recognized groups being blamed for rights abuses in Guatemala and Colombia in the past.
While the cartel may be on its way out, “there shouldn’t be abuses by those who come after, there shouldn’t be what we would call a witch hunt; there should be reconciliation,” said the Rev. Javier Cortes, part of a team of priests in the Roman Catholic diocese of Apatzingan who have publicly denounced abuses by the Knights Templar.
Before dawn on Monday, soldiers and police arrested one of the cartel’s top leaders, Dionicio Loya Plancarte, alias “El Tio,” or The Uncle. (The Interior Department spells his first name with an “s,” but the Attorney General’s Office and U.S. authorities spell it with a “c.”)
National Public Safety System secretary Monte Rubido said the feared drug lord was arrested without a shot being fired. He said federal forces found Loya Plancarte in Morelia, the capital of Michoacan, “hiding in a closet” and accompanied only by 16-year-old boy.