THREE brotherhoods are struggling for control of Apatzingán, a dusty town in the south-western Mexican state of Michoacán. One is deadly: the Knights Templar drug gang. One espouses vigilantism: the armed “self-defence” militias who on February 8th helped drive the Templars out of their stronghold. The third is the most powerful: a young and preppy group of federal-government employees sent in by President Enrique Peña Nieto to retake control of Michoacán after tension between Knights Templars and vigilantes threatened to spin out of control.Many of this third group served under Mr Peña when he was governor of the state of Mexico in 2005-11. They have known each other for years and banter like friends at a tennis club. Their insertion into Michoacán reflects a wider trend in Mexican politics: the resurrection of an old but effective style of presidential rule.After 12 years of an increasingly chaotic decentralisation of power while Mr Peña’s Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) was in opposition, the president is now seeking to restore the balance. In Michoacán he has imposed his authority in a way not seen since then President Carlos Salinas de Gortari sought...
via The Economist: The Americas http://ift.tt/1md7I7v
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