Mexican troops took over a port in Michoacan in an attempt to curb drug violence in the area. The troop-controlled Mexican port is considered one of the largest along Mexico’s Pacific coast.
Government spokesman Eduardo Sanchez told AFP that high-ranking Navy officers are now in command of the port of Lazaro Cardenas--which has the most general cargo volume in Mexico.
“The military will guarantee commerce, and will monitor fiscal obligations,” he said in a press conference. The military will also take over customs.
Army soldiers were sent in to replace the more than 100 police officers who looked after Lazaro Cardenas’s security. The police officers will now be evaluated to see if they can handle the job amid allegations of corruption.
Sanchez told CNN that the Navy, Army, and federal police recently were deployed to the port and Lazaro Cardenas to “strengthen the rule of law, as well as the legality of the daily commercial activities of the port.”
The main cartel in the area is the Knights Templar, which has trafficked methamphetamine and has been known to attack police.
In recent months, drug-related killings in Mexico have tapered off to an extent but the violence in Michoacan has raged.
George W. Grayson, a professor of government at the College of William & Mary, told CNN that a number of young men who worked at the port before the country’s recession have joined cartels. Meanwhile, city corruption has grown to a “sewer of corruption and violence,” he added.
