Mexican vigilantes legalised in the war on drugs

As the war on drugs continues to fail in Mexico, President Peña Nieto’s government has given legal backing to vigilante groups fighting against the cartels. The vigilantes will be known as the Rural Defense Corps and will fight alongside the army and police.

The government has called it a “new dynamic” but is it really more of an embarrassing admission that the corruption that was rife in the security forces has not been dealt with? Are civilians capable of competing with the drugs gangs when the police have not been?