Opponent of Mexico’s Cartels Is Detained in Vigilantes’ Deaths

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/13/world/americas/opponent-of-mexicos-cartels-is-detained-in-vigilantes-deaths.html

Hipolito Mora claims to have started the first self-defense group a little over a year ago to defend the people in the region against the knights templar cartel and their incredible violence and cruelty. Since then other groups have been developed as well and it looks to me like the self-defense groups are starting to act like the cartels... Mora was recently arrested as a suspect in the murder of two men from another group. A lot of people are denying it saying that he would never and that he was framed. There is a lot of evidence pointing to him tho including many disputes between him and this rival groups leader and the negotiations that these groups have been having get heated and turn into fights. Mora is also accused of using the land that he has acquired for himself and making personal money off of it rather than for the group. There is also a lot of suspicion about the groups being infiltrated by the cartels and may be working for them more than anything at this point. 

What really interests me about this article is first of all the whole dynamic of the situation is so foreign to me. Where I live the government and the police force defend against lawlessness but in some parts of Mexico the cartel is so out of hand that the people have had to set these groups up to feel safe and in the end the rivalry between the self-defense groups has turned violent and very tense and full of friction more than anything really a power struggle, making them resemble cartels that they are defending against quite a bit. Which is really kind of ironic in a sad way that makes you really feel for the people that are so caught up and stuck in the midst of this corruption and violence. And the fact that the government is now intervening and taking action against who are supposed to be the good guys that has got to be so frusterating for the people who live there. But then again are they really the good guys?