Mexico's government plans on Saturday to begin demobilizing a vigilante movement of assault-rifle-wielding ranchers and farmers that formed in the western state of Michoacan and succeeded in largely expelling the Knights Templar cartel when state and local authorities couldn't. The ceremony in the town of Tepalcatepec, where the movement began in February 2013, will involve the registration of thousands of guns by the federal government and an agreement that the so-called "self-defense" groups will either join a new official rural police force or return to their normal lives and act only as voluntary reserves when called on. The government will go town by town to organize and recruit the new rural force. Mexican media, meanwhile, reported that police arrested dozens of "false self-defense members" and disarmed late Friday in the town of La Mira. One vigilante group member who had been manning a road block earlier in the day told The Associated Press that his group had retreated to their homes when the police arrived about 8 p.m. and they were hearing heaving shooting between police another unknown group. -- SPA 18:37 LOCAL TIME 15:37 GMT تغريد
