Grupos de autodefensa comunitaria

The indigenous people assumed control over the town, expelled the police force and blocked roads leading to oak timber on a nearby mountain.

[5] When power vacuum occurred La Familia Michoacana fell into infighting and disintegrated, its former members created the Knights Templar Cartel.

At first this new criminal group had the support of civil society, believing their promises of protection from Los Zetas, but soon began to commit the same atrocities committed by La Familia Michoacana and Los Zetas: they began to extort, kidnap, murder and rape civilians, leading to a situation of semi slavery.

[3] For this reason, on February 24, 2013 Hipólito Mora, Estanislao Beltrán and some land-owners, like a doctor from the community of Tepalcatepec José Manuel Mireles Valverde and Alberto Gutiérrez, took up arms against the Templar Cartel and all criminal groups that wanted to impose dominance in the area, entering a new phase in the war against drug trafficking.

Some defense groups and their members were absorbed into a faction that answers to the Mexican Army (SEDENA) and also registered their weapons; some were issued new legal-weapons by the government.

[6] Dr Mireles was critically injured in a plane crash in 2014 which made him unable to continue his previous role as leader of the Autodefensas.

[3] Another important leader of the community self-defense forces in Michoacán and Guerrero was Estanislao Beltrán-Torres who was nicknamed "Papa Smurf", who took the main leadership in the time Mireles was injured.

Because of the lack of oversight of Autodefensas groups, these organizations began to be joined by former cartel members and people who felt above the law.

Originally the weapons that Autodefensas managed to recover from skirmishes with cartels were sufficient to arm the vigilantes, as these groups got bigger this did not suffice.

At first the original groups started with their legal small arms, and hunting club rifles, muskets, and .22 caliber rifles (weapons statutorily permitted by the Ministry of Defense ),[9] but as the groups started to defeat criminals, they also were gradually seizing military weapons (M4, AK47, MP5, G3, M60) as well as buying equipment from the black market sponsored by the wealth of the region and other drug cartels fighting their common enemy cartel.

Those who joined the rural guards were allowed to open carry (as any police force does), keep their weapons and were issued a standard M4 rifle.