Former vigilante leader runs for office in Mexican elections
Former vigilante leader runs for office in Mexican elections
By E. EDUARDO CASTILLO, Associated Press | June 3, 2015 | Updated: June 3, 2015 10:01am
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Photo By Eduardo Verdugo/AP
In this May 21, 2015 photo, congressional candidate, former self-defense group leader Hipolito Mora,
center, waits to start a campaign meeting with residents in Coahuayana, Michoacan state, Mexico. For
his security, Mora is flanked by two armed men; a rural police officer, left, and a vigilante. At far left
is his deputy Jose Luis Torres, and at right is a supporter who introduced himself and his family before
the meeting. After helping bring down the Knights Templar cartel with a vigilante uprising in 2013,
twice landing in jail and losing his own son to violence, the 59-year-old man now is leading a different
sort of campaign by running for Congress in Mexico’s midterm elections on June 7.
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APATZINGAN, Mexico (AP) — Fed up with drug cartel demands for extortion payments, lime-grower Hipolito Mora picked up an old shotgun and led his neighbors in a vigilante uprising in 2013.
After helping bring down the Knights Templar cartel, twice landing in jail and losing his own son to violence, the 59-year-old man now is leading a different sort of campaign by running for Congress in Mexico's midterm elections on Sunday.
In his familiar wire-rimmed glasses, white Panama hat and graying beard, Mora is rallying supporters in southern Michoacan to harness the energy behind the vigilante uprising and turn it into political power.
"Two years and three months ago we began this fight, a fight because no one could work anymore. All sorts of jobs were controlled by the Knights Templar," he told about 50 people gathered on a soccer field in Apatzingan, some 200 miles (335 kms) west of Mexico City.
More:
http://www.chron.com/news/world/article/Former-vigilante-leader-runs-for-office-in-6304178.php