Mexico City, Jan 8 (EFE).- Alfredo Castillo, the federal commissioner for security and development in Michoacan, will have to appear before Congress to explain his strategy to lawmakers in the wake of a wave of violence in the western Mexican state, legislative officials told Efe Thursday.
A working group from the Permanent Commission of Congress, which acts when the legislative branch is in recess, will meet soon with Castillo to discuss the public safety situation in Michoacan, but no date has been set for the federal official's appearance.
Congresswoman Lilia Aguilar Gil, of the Workers' Party, or PT, requested that the commissioner, who was appointed to his post by President Enrique Peña Nieto to develop a security strategy for Michoacan, appear before legislators.
Castillo will appear before lawmakers as the violence grows in the western state, where 11 people died in an incident last month involving rival members of a security force created to absorb the vigilante groups formed to fight drug traffickers in the region.
On Dec. 16, more than 80 vigilantes led by Luis Antonio Torres, known as "El Americano," attacked the barricades manned by followers of Hipolito Mora, founder of the vigilante movement that arose in Michoacan nearly two years ago to protect communities from the Caballeros Templarios drug cartel.
Mora founded the community self-defense groups on Feb. 24, 2013, to fight the cartel and the Peña Nieto administration sent Castillo to the state in January 2014 to deal with the wave of violence in Michoacan.
Castillo said on May 10, 2014, that the vigilante groups were being legalized and incorporated into the Rural Force.
The commissioner will also have to discuss the shootouts on Tuesday that left nine people dead during a federal operation to retake Apatzingan city hall from an armed group that had occupied the building.
Castillo said the deaths occurred during a shootout, but the Reforma newspaper reported on Wednesday, citing eyewitnesses, that at least three people were executed by Federal Police officers after they surrendered.
The Permanent Commission of Congress also plans to meet with National Security Commissioner Monte Alejandro Rubido and Deputy Attorney General Mariana Benitez Tiburcio to discuss security issues.
