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The
state attorney general's office said at around midday it
received word of an attack on Hipolito Mora in the town of
Felipe Carrillo Puerto in western Michoacan. Mora founded a
so-called self-defense group that rose to prominence a decade
ago with a declared aim of protecting the area from a predatory
drug gang in the violent state.
The Michoacan attorney general's office said when officials
arrived at the scene they discovered two destroyed truck and a
badly burned body, which was presumed to be Mora.
Three other bodies were found at the scene. Prosecutors said
they believed Mora had been traveling with a security detail
when he came under attack by assailants who then fled.
Michoacan's governor, Alfredo Ramirez Bedolla, confirmed Mora's
death. On Twitter he called the attack on Mora and local police
officers a "cowardly killing," and promised to bring those
responsible to justice.
A number of Mexican states plagued by chronic violent crime have
given rise to self-defense groups, which defend their existence
on the grounds that authorities have been ineffective.
In 2014, a group of self-defense groups, including Mora's,
forged a short-lived pact with the federal government to create
a regulated rural defense force against organized crime.
Mora, 67, had stepped back from his role in the self-defense
group in recent years, but told Reuters recently that he planned
to take up arms again to deal with a surge of crime in the
region.
(Reporting by Lizbeth Diaz; Additional reporting by Dave Graham;
Editing by Leslie Adler)
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