Mexico Orders Vigilantes to Disarm in Michoacan

Mexican police and the military have moved into the state of Michoacan and ordered vigilante groups to stand down and disarm.

The groups rose during 2013 and took over many towns, in the state, in order to combat the Knights Templar drug gang.

Military forces engaged some of the vigilante groups in gun fire, only increasing hostilities between the groups and the federal government.

The General Council of the Community and Self Defence Groups of Michoacan, as the groups call themselves, feel abandoned by the government, saying that the federals left them to the mercy of the drug gangs.

Most of the groups state that they have no intention of laying down their arms, and will continue to defend their homes from the gangs and even the government if necessary.

Their leaders say they will only stop fighting once the Knights Templar are eliminated.