Anti-gang community defense activist Hipólito Mora slain in Mexico

By FABIOLA SÁNCHEZ and MARK STEVENSON
Associated Press

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The leader of an armed civilian movement that once kicked a drug cartel out of the western Mexico state of Michoacan has been killed. Tributes quickly rolled in Thursday for slain “self defense” leader Hipólito Mora. Mora was one of the last leaders of Michoacan’s armed vigilante movement when farmers banded together to expel the Knights Templar cartel from the state between 2013 and 2014. Mora was one of the few fighters to reman in his hometown. But Mora complained in recent years that many vigilante forces were later infiltrated by the cartels and that gang violence was worse than ever.