
APATZINGAN, Michoacan — In farm towns across the state of Michoacan, residents are used to seeing military patrols rumbling through their streets. But until late last month, they had never seen soldiers descending on City Hall. After surrounding the whitewashed building in Apatzingan's central square, masked troops armed with AK-47 rifles arrested the mayor, Genaro Guizar Valencia. Authorities accused Guizar — and more than two dozen other officials across the state — of working for La Familia Michoacán, an ascendant drug cartel guided by a messianic cult that promises to protect the poor while [...]