The arrested leader of Mexican drug gang the Familia Michoacana revealed that he had recently sought an alliance with the Zetas to support his group in its standoff with rivals the Caballeros Templarios.
With Mexican security forces' arrest of 36 alleged members of the Familia Michoacana drug trafficking organization, and the deaths of another 15, the rift between two leaders of the group has spilled into public view.
Citizens of the Mexican state of Michoacan woke on Thursday morning to banners hanging from bridges, monuments, and school gates proclaiming the emergence of a new group, the Knights Templar (Los Caballeros Templarios), who are apparently taking the place of the brutal Familia Michoacana cartel.
The Familia Michoacana announced Monday that they were disbanding. Dozens of fliers and banners appeared in the towns Patzcuaro, Quiroga, Santa Clara del Cobre and Apatzingan. Local paper Sol de Morelia reports that in Lazaro Cardenas, banners appeared above major highways and close to other key locations like the Federal Police station and the military's naval academy. Dozens of photocopied fliers were scattered in the streets of state capital Morelia, where authorities removed 25 banners hung across the city.
In a study issued December 13, 2010 by the Strategic Studies Institute, George W. Grayson traces the origins of the Familia Michoacana, a drug-trafficking organization in Mexico known for its strange, cult-like ideology.
From the executive summary:
"This monograph examines the profound changes sweeping Michoacán in recent years that have facilitated the rise and power of drug traffickers; the origins and evolution of La Familia, its leadership and organization, its ideology and recruitment practices, its impressive resources, its brutal conflict with Los Zetas, its skill in establishing dual sovereignty in various municipalities, if not the entire state; and its long-term goals and their significance for the United States. The conclusion addresses steps that could be taken to curb this extraordinarily wealthy and dangerous criminal organization."
A pdf of the report can be downloaded here.
Several coordinated bank assaults and robberies have led shops to close their doors in Apatzingan, in the embattled state of Michoacan, local reports say.
Speculation was that the Familia Michoacan, the criminal syndicate that fought with federal police and military last week and reportedly lost its main leader, Nazario Moreno, alias 'El Mas Loco,' in the battles that eleven dead, was behind the assaults, the La Jornada of Michoacan newspaper says.
Sunday peace rallies across Michoacan emphasized a deep distrust of government authority, with some demonstrators voicing support for the Familia Michoacana.
The Familia Michoacana -- the criminal syndicate whose battles this week with authorities in their western stronghold from which they take their name has left them without a leader following the death of Nazario Moreno -- has issued a statement directed at the Mexican government and the Michoacán people, which InSight has translated.
The statement, published on the Blog del Narco website, which receives and publishes posts about the drug war in Mexico, and could not be independently verified, threatens Mexican President Felipe Calderón, who is from Michoacán, and his family. It also says more battles with authorities may be coming, telling Michoacán residents, "Do not go to hospitals, do not go shopping, watch TV and stay at home please."
After the death of its top leader, the Familia Michoacana is injured, but it is far from done. The government's attempt to clear President Felipe Calderon's home state of this criminal syndicate is a valiant but futile effort that will not bear fruit for the following reasons:
