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Caribbean-Latin America
Mexican Federales Reinforce Michoacan With 1,800 Troops
2011-07-11
For a map, click here. For a map of Michoacan, click here.

By Chris Covert

A total of 1,800 Mexican Policia Federal (PF) troops have been deployed to Michoacan in the largest build-up of PF troops in Mexico so far this year, according an announcement in the Secretaria de Seguridad Publica (SSP) website Saturday afternoon.

The news bulletin also mentioned similar additional troops are being deployed to Michoacan, but none of the other Mexican defense agencies have thus far released any information about their specific deployments.

The PF reinforcement includes about 170 vehicles including armored cars, 15 ambulances and four helicopters, including US made Blackhawk utility and Russian made MI-17Sh helicopters.

Although no specifics have been announced about the build-up. SSP officials must be concerned about the increasing number and power of attacks by Los Zetas and Caballeros de los Templarios drug cartel against against Mexican security forces as well as rival drug gangs in the past month.

At least three attacks have come on the heels of the conclusion of a major counternarcotics offensive in June in the nearby state of Jalisco and in Zacatecas where Mexican Army and Marine units seized drugs and weapons,and disrupted drug cartel activities in the area.
To read the Rantburg report on the Mexican counternarcotics offensives in June click here (fourth item) and here (8th thru 12th item).
  • On June 19th on the eve of a FIFA Under 17 soccer tournament in Morelia, nine individuals were found tortured and shot to death and several roads in and around Morelia were blocked by 15 hijacked heavy vehicles. The murders and the blocks were initiated by the Caballeros de los Templarios drug cartel.

    To see the Rantburg report on the Morelia murders and the roadblocks, click here.
  • On July 2nd, a Policia Federal group housed in n office builiding in La Piedad in far northern Michoacan was attacked by as many as 50 armed suspects aboard 10 vehicles. The ensuing firefight lasted for 30 minutes and cost three armed suspects their lives. The attack was said to be the work of Los Zetas.

    • To read the Rantburg report on the La Piedad, Michoacan armed attack, click here.
  • On July 6th, 11 armed suspects were killed by Policia Federal units in two firefights near Apatzingan. Shortly after the conclusion of the gunfights, several roads in central Michoacan were blocked using hijacked heavy vehicles. As many as three civilians may have been killed in the blocking campaign. The criminal action was credited to the Caballeros de los Templarios drug cartel.
    To read the Rantburg report on the Apatzingan firefights and roadblock campaign, click here.
Policia Federal deployments in metropolitan areas in Mexico such as the La Laguna region of Mexico which includes Torreon, Coahuila-Gomez Palacio, Durango and in Monterrey, Nuevoleon typically includes troops numbering as many as 300. PF has in the past rotated whole deployments of PF effectives in and out of metropolitan areas when they have suffered sharp reverses or are under stress.

For example in Juarez, Chihuahua last year an entire deployment of 300 Mexican Federal agetns were rotated out and replced by another unit following a near mutiny led by subordinate commanders last August.

The last known full deployment of PF troops in northern Mexico took place in the summer of 2010 when 300 Policia Federal troops were deployed to Torreon, Coahuila.

The largest last known deployment of any security forces occurred last May when more than 1,000 Mexican soldiers were deployed to Torreon, Coahuila by land and air.
To read the Rantburg report on the May, 2011 Mexican Army deployment to Torreon, Coahuila, click here.
National politics may have played a role in such a massive reinforcement. The Michoacan 2011 gubernaotorial elections take place in November to replace current Partido Revolucion Democratica (PRD) Leonel Godoy Rangel, whose terms ends this year.

The candidate for Partido Accion Nacional (PAN) is Luisa Calderon Hinojosa, the sister of Mexican president Felipe Calderon.

The PRD has held the governor's seat for six years, but while a PAN pickup here would be a shot in the arm for PAN's flagging fortunes, the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI), fresh from gubernatorial, legislative and municipal electoral sweeps of Nayarit, Mexico state and Coahuila, is regarded as more likely to take control with a win.

The PRI candidate for Michoacan governor is Víctor Manuel Silva Tejeda, while the PRD candidate is Raul Moron Orozco.
Posted by:badanov

#6  "I wonder if that's an approved Operation Fast and Furious shipment, Anonymoose. The article doesn't say..."

I sure hope not, tw. Texas would be in BIG trouble with the Feds then.... :-(
Posted by: Barbara   2011-07-11 19:53  

#5  1,800 troops is a lot of guys, One might suspect something was up.

P.S. that link seems a little funky, what with the embedded jsessionid in it.
Posted by: SteveS   2011-07-11 18:56  

#4  Caballero is widely used throughout Mexico in a variety of contexts from the Caballeros de los Templarios to cavalry to cowboys.
Posted by: badanov   2011-07-11 16:22  

#3  I wonder if that's an approved Operation Fast and Furious shipment, Anonymoose. The article doesn't say...
Posted by: trailing wife   2011-07-11 15:08  

#2  Texas deputies seize truck with 67 semi-automatic rifles headed to Mexico.
Posted by: Anonymoose   2011-07-11 12:39  

#1  Linguistics: While the name "Caballeros de los Templarios", is the "Knights Templar" cartel, the word "Caballero", is closer to "horseman" than "knight".

Etymology that I can find:

1877, "a Spanish gentleman," from Sp., from L. caballarius, from caballus "a pack-horse, nag, hack."

In the later Roman Empire the classical Latin word for horse, equus, was replaced in common parlance by vulgar Latin caballus, sometimes thought to derive from Gaulish caballos. From caballus arose terms in the various Romance languages cognate to the (French-derived) English cavalier: Old Italian cavaliere, Italian cavallo, French cheval, Spanish caballero, French chevalier, Portuguese cavaleiro, Romanian cavaler.

The Germanic languages prefer terms cognate to the English word rider: German Ritter, and Dutch and Scandinavian ridder.

Knight, on the other hand:

O.E. cniht "boy, youth, servant," common W.Gmc. (cf. O.Fris. kniucht, Du. knecht, M.H.G. kneht "boy, youth, lad,"

Ger. Knecht "servant, bondman, vassal"), of unknown origin. Meaning "military follower of a king or other superior" is from c.1100.

Began to be used in a specific military sense in Hundred Years War (14th-15th Century), and gradually rose in importance through M.E. period until it became a rank in the nobility.

However, this creates a problem because by the time of the conquest, a military knight was the equivalent of "regular army", but conquistadors were generally volunteer militia.

This suggests that the use of caballero as a knight is a more recent invention, from when the regular Spanish army occupied their parts of the Americas.

However, this creates its own linguistic problem, as by this time, the Spanish army was both very regimented and hierarchical, as well as administratively modern. So only lower ranking cavalry enlisted would be called caballeros, with higher ranking personnel referred to by rank.

This is half a world removed from the Knights Templar of the 12th through 14th Centuries.
Posted by: Anonymoose   2011-07-11 10:29  

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