Accordingly, the government has made clear its determination to overcome what a recent article in the Los Angeles Times calls the port’s “darker reputation” with the port being used as a receiving point for cocaine and other shipments from Colombia and Peru to be shipped north to the US.
In an effort to solve the problem the government of President Enrique Peña Nieto has taken the step of sending in military and federal police to take over security functions from the municipal police force. Federal officials hope to cut off a key source of profit for the cartels, particularly a group known as the Knights Templar, whose reign of terror has plunged much of the surrounding state of Michoacan, a few hours’ drive from Mexico City, into near-anarchy.
Eduardo Sanchez, Peña Nieto’s security spokesman, said last week that the government had descended on Lazaro Cardenas after receiving tips about “acts of corruption” and collusion with the drug cartels. The Mexican navy is now charged with controlling the port area, and the federal police and army are patrolling the streets. Sanchez said the army would also “evaluate, and train, where appropriate,” the municipal police.
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