David Agren

Special for USA TODAY

This region has been bedeviled by cartels committing crimes against residents

Knights Templar is a cartel infamous for controlling the production of methamphetamine

Catholic parish priests assist the self-defense forces

NUEVA ITALIA, Mexico – Armed vigilantes who have taken control of territory in lawless Michoacán state to keep out vicious drug cartels refused to give up their guns in a standoff with government soldiers.

On Friday, federal police and soldiers fanned out over ranches and lemon groves after a standoff between the vigilantes and police that left four people dead in this region 300 miles west of Mexico City.

"They're coming to re-establish order that's been lacking for seven years," Father Patricio Madrigal, a parish priest, said of the presence of police. "People are supposed to believe that?"

This region has been bedeviled by cartels committing crimes against residents caught between gun wars with no help from law enforcement.

Self-defense groups have marched on at least 15 communities over the past 11 months to run off cartel henchmen and kick out corrupt police officers taking bribes to look the other way.

The federal government says it will protect the area and demands that the so-called community police forces disarm. Mexico has sent soldiers and federal police into the region to disarm the groups – causing tension among people jaded by previous attempts at terminating the Knights Templar cartel that has subjected people here to extortion, kidnappings and rapes.

When the army arrived Monday, villagers encircled the soldiers. Shots were fired, and four villagers were killed.

"We all went unarmed," said Daniel Castañeda, 21, a farmhand and vigilante packing a 9mm Luger pistol. "Four people were shot, and we don't know why."

The state of Michoacán is where Mexican President Felipe Calderón premiered his years-long crackdown on drug cartels and organized crime. He boosted the presence in the region of soldiers and federal police officers, but it was not enough.

"The Knights Templar ... is an enormous mafia with armies of informants, gunmen and professional people on its payroll, which operates in conspiracy with the authorities," security analyst Eduardo Guerrero wrote in the newspaper Reforma.

President Enrique Peña Nieto, who succeeded Calderón, has made economic issues his priority since taking office 13 months ago and talks little of security matters.

Amid this failure to break the cartels, some analysts say it is understandable that Mexicans have formed vigilante groups to defend themselves. But there is a danger, some say, that the movement in Michoacán will prompt Mexicans throughout the country to grab guns.

"There are many other places (in Mexico) with security problems. It's not just Michoacán," says Aldo Muñoz Armenta, political science professor at the Autonomous University of Mexico State.

Hipólito Mora, a lemon grower in the town of La Ruana and founder of the first self-defense group, says the vigilantes won't march on any more municipalities, but they won't disarm until the government captures kingpins from the Knights Templar.

"If we disarm first, they'll come back and massacre us," Mora says.

Knights Templar is a cartel infamous for controlling the production of methamphetamine, teaching lessons from its own version of the Bible and committing crimes against ordinary people. The federal government insists its operation in Michoacán will return peace and prosperity to the impoverished region.

"We're going after criminals, wherever they come from," Interior Minister Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong said.

Talks were ongoing Friday between the self-defense groups and the government, which says it has assumed security responsibilities in the region. Catholic priests in the region say it is not enough, and they assist the vigilantes in their work.

In a letter issued this week, Monsignor Miguel Patiño Velázquez backed his parish priests.

"The people are demanding the government first arrest and disarm organized crime," he wrote. "Instead of pursuing criminals, (federal forces) have attacked the people that defended them."

Alfredo Castillo, the federal government's envoy here, said the Knights Templar cartel was actually once a vigilante group that formed under a different name years ago to fight the Zetas cartel.

"You can start with a genuine cause, but when you start taking control, making decisions and feeling authority … you run the risk of getting to that point," Castillo told MVS radio.

Townspeople in Nueva Italia welcome the self-defense groups, which asked for permission from residents before entering their town Jan. 11.

People say the cartels abducted people for ransom, burned businesses and seized delivery trucks to force residents to kick out the self-defense groups. Lemon growers paid a fee based on the weight of their crop. Ranchers paid a tax on every head of cattle and amount of meat.

Tortillas jumped in price as Knights Templar charged extra for the most basic of Mexican staples. The cartel even levied a charge on people using public toilets, says Father David López, vicar of the Apatzingán Cathedral who wears body armor under his clerical robes.

"Everyone applauded" the self-defense groups, retired chemist Gloria Ayala said. "Of the bad options we have, they're the best."

Castañeda, the young vigilante, says friends of his and his 12-year-old sister are among those who have been abducted by the cartel. He said he was offered $450 per month to quit the self-defense forces and join the Knights Templar.

He has a response to the government's promise to capture the cartel leaders and demand for his group to disarm.

"If they hand over all of them, we'll hand over our weapons," he said.