Mexico plans to invest billions of dollars in Michoacan for infrastracture

dw.de reported that Mexico’s president has unveiled plans to pacify a volatile drug cartel stronghold with billions of dollars in development money. Anti-cartel militias had formed in Michoacan in the absence of state security forces. Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto pledged on Tuesday to invest $3.4 billion (2.5 billion euros) to build roads, schools and other infrastructure in the western state of Michoacan, after having already deployed thousands of troops and police to re-establish federal authority there.

Pena Nieto said that the money would help “reverse the conditions of institutional weakness” in the region, which has become a flashpoint in Mexico’s bloody war against organized crime. Local residents have formed armed militias to drive out the Knights Templar drug cartel. Read Article