Autodefensa vigilantes in 2015
The Grupos de Autodefensa Comunitaria ("Community Self-Defense Groups"), often known simply as the Autodefensas, were vigilante self-defense groups that arose in southern and east coastal Mexico in 2012 and 2013 with the goal of fighting back against the terrorist drug cartels that ruled over swathes of land and murdered thousands of people. On 15 April 2011, the first self-defense group was formed in Cheran, Michoacan to fight off illegal loggers affiliated with La Familia Michoacana, and more groups would be formed in Michoacan to fight the Knights Templar Cartel after the LFM's fall. Jose Manuel Mireles Valverde, a medical doctor, formed his own militia to fight against the Templars, and the Mexican government was eventually forced to regularize militias in order to distinguish them from the cartels. Some groups registered with the Mexican Army and received weapons from them, while other groups did not trust the government, which they feared would disarm them.