6 Die in clash between gunmen, militias in western Mexico

Six people were killed and four others wounded in a running battle between drugcartel gunmen and an indigenous militia in the western Mexican state of Michoacan, authorities said Tuesday.

Two of the dead have been identified as Nahuatl Indians, while the rest are thought to be members of the Caballeros Templarios (Knights Templar) cartel, the state Attorney General’s Office said.

The confrontation began Monday morning, when six Templarios under the command of regional boss Federico “El Lico” Gonzalez ambushed Semei Verdia Zepeda, leader of the selfdefense group in Santa Maria Ostula, a village near the town of Aquila.

One militiaman was wounded in the attack, which came as Verdia and some of his men were traveling in two pickup trucks on the road linking Aquila with Chinicula.

The Ostula militia set out in pursuit of the attackers and eventually caught up with them in the Sierra Madre del Sur mountains, leading to a gunfight that resulted in the death of indigenous activist Reginaldo Rodriguez Flores.

By the wee hours of Tuesday, Verdia and his men had cornered the Templarios in a mountain cave and another fight ensued, leaving four gunmen and one militiaman dead.

The Templarios made a previous attempt on Verdia’s life last Dec. 16.

Verdia’s is one of a number of armed militias that arose in Michoacan in early 2013 to defend their communities from the Templarios, which supplements its drug profits with sidelines in kidnapping, extortion and armed robbery.

Increasingly intense fighting between the Templarios and the militias prompted the federal government to send thousands of troops and extra police to Michoacan early in 2014.

Most of the militias either demobilized or were absorbed into a new Rural Guard operating under army control.

Former militia leader Enrique Hernandez Salcedo was assassinated nearly two weeks ago while running for mayor of Yurecuaro, Michoacan, while 42 suspected criminals and a law enforcement agent died last Friday in a battle outside the nearby town of Tanhuato.