TEPALCATEPEC, Mexico – Authorities have begun handing out police uniforms and assault rifles to vigilantes in western Mexico, legalising a movement formed to combat a vicious drug cartel.
Scores of farmers lined up on Saturday at a cattle farm to receive the blue uniforms of the newly created rural state police force in Tepalcatepec, a founding town of the self-defence militias in the lush agricultural state of Michoacan.
The units were also making their debut in the neighbouring town of Buenavista, which revolted in February 2013 against the cult-like Knights Templars gang because local police failed to protect them.
“With this, we become legal,” said white-bearded vigilante leader Estanislao Beltran, nicknamed “Papa Smurf,” after slipping into his outfit.
“We are part of the government.”
Some 100 new rural police officers then sang the national anthem at a formal swearing-in ceremony in the town square.
