Mexican vigilantes

500,000??? Must be a misprint?

Google translate often has a problem with the way numbers are written in Spanish. Based upon what I have previously observed, I believe it probably means 500 to 1000?

The original Spanish reads "mil 500 hombres," which means one thousand 500 men or 1500 men.

Thank you for the clarification!

Just spent a week in Uruapan, Patzcuaro, Zirahuen, Santa Clara. (through 22 de feb.)
Didn't see any autodefensas but did see lots of Policía Federal (except for Cheran, which seems to have their own little militia). Everything seemed peaceful enough, but then who knows what the political undercurrents are.

Here is a copy/paste from the Yahoo Michoacan board written by a Patzcuaro resident:
"We left Pátzcuaro for Morelia this morning around 10:30 a.m. Driving down the hill from our house into Pátzcuaro we saw that the auto defense group still had their rocks on the road which we serpentined through with no problem. On the highway to Morelia we encountered 2 other slow-downs--one from the Normalistas at Tiripetio and the other a one-lane slow down by Federales at the last Pemex station before entering Morelia. They had tires stacked to block one lane. In both cases there was a very slight delay, but otherwise no problems at either place in getting through. There was a huge federal police presence in Morelia, standing shoulder to shoulder in many places, holding riot shields in front of them. Madera was blocked off and there was a loud teachers' rally going on in the plaza by the cathedral. On the way back from Morelia, later in the afternoon, the federates were still out on the highway, but the Normalistas were gone. Getting back to our house in the late afternoon, the auto defense group was still causing a slow-down on the road leading from Pátzcuaro to Santa Clara. We went out again a little later and when we returned back home in the evening, there was a car parked perpendicular to the road in front of Colonia Vista Bella that had "auto defensa" painted in large letters on the side of it and plenty of masked men with various types of guns again. Obviously, the auto defense group didn't just pass through Pátzcuaro as some reports said. Kathy"

And an article from INFORMADOR which appears to indicate that the defense forces want to enter Morelia:
http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&hl=en&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dinformador%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26hs%3DrU4%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26channel%3Dsb&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=es&u=http://www.informador.com.mx/mexico/2014/515435/6/refuerzan-vigilancia-en-morelia-ante-el-avance-de-autodefensas.htm&usg=ALkJrhg6nsCySYvS1KbpReBoLURpE7bKlw

When I left Uruapan last Sat. there were at least 30 Policía Federal camionetas parked in the plaza principal as the men were quartered in the Hotel Concordia on the plaza. Very little presence in Pátzcuaro, so maybe that's why the autodefensas went there....soft target.
The worst news in that area last week was the collision of two pickup trucks just outside Tingambato, one of which was carrying a load of aguacate pickers and 3 were killed and 12 injured at 5:30 AM, early morning.
I kept up with the local news in the Uruapan periodico daily...ABC, and I don't think they saw this coming.  My compadre lives between Tiripetio and Acuitzio del Canje and the locals there had no idea the autodefensas were on the move to that area.
Hopefully it will blow over.