DRUG-GANG BATTLES LEAVE MEXICO REGION IN UNRULY STATE

MEXICO CITY-Three days of raging gun battles this week between rival
drug gangs in Michoacan state killed an unknown number of people,
forced hundreds to flee their homes and raised fresh fears that
another major Mexican state has become all but ungovernable.

Fighting broke out Monday and lasted for three days. But news of the
conflict was slow to get out because local media in states like
Michoacan have largely stopped covering the carnage on orders from
drug gangs.

On Tuesday, a helicopter belonging to the Federal Police was forced to
make a hard landing after being shot at by gunmen from a drug cartel,
the Federal Investigative Agency, an arm of the Attorney General's
Office, said Tuesday. Three federal police were injured.

The police didn't immediately have a number of casualties in the
fighting between the gangs. But the lawlessness echoed the scene in
Tamaulipas state, where mass graves have recently been found. In
another western Mexican state, Nayarit, a gunbattle this week left 28
dead.

"Organized crime groups are fighting for control of the area," said
Genaro Guizar, the mayor of Apatzingan, the fourth-largest city in
Michoacan. "There was panic throughout the place."

Mr. Guizar said that a total of about 800 people had taken refuge in
shelters in the nearby town of Buenavista and in Apazingan, but that
the refugees had started to return to their homes Wednesday after
fighting eased.

Michoacan, a large agricultural state known also for its tourist
attractions like the colonial state capital of Morelia, is the home
turf of the powerful La Familia drug cartel, which specializes in
making and trafficking methamphetamines, using the port of Lazaro
Cardenas to smuggle in precursor chemicals.

The cartel has infiltrated local police forces and city halls
throughout the state, experts say, and largely displaced local
governments in many areas.

The situation is so bad that Mexico's three main political parties on
Wednesday signed a joint statement saying they were exploring the
possibility of fielding a single, unity candidate in November's
gubernatorial race in an attempt to set aside partisan bickering and
save the state.

"It's indicative of how badly the wheels are falling off," said James
McDonald, an anthropology professor at Southern Utah University who
lived for many years in Michoacan and is an expert on it. "I think
Michoacan is lost, like Tamaulipas. And it could be the realization
that they need to get together on this and deal with it, or else."

The uptick in violence in Michoacan this week could be related to
December's killing of La Familia chief Nazario Moreno, the messianic
leader of the cartel who was known as "El Mas Loco," or "The Craziest
One."

But in March, dozens of banners pinned up across the state announced
the creation of a new local cartel, dubbed "The Knights Templar."

The Templars are thought to be remnants of La Familia that have
regrouped. Mexican police officials believe the Templars are led by a
former teacher, Servando Gomez, nicknamed "La Tuta." They believe
another surviving La Familia leader, Jose de Jesus Mendez, known as
"El Chango", or the monkey, may be fighting with Mr. Gomez for control
of the organization.

A Mexican police report said that La Familia had retreated to the
countryside after the arrest of 13 mayors and other officials on drug
corruption charges in 2009, but had regained much of their former
positions in the state's towns and cities after prosecutors failed to
win prosecution against the detained officials, who were released.

Drug-related corruption in Michoacan is rampant, analysts say. The
current governor's half-brother and former federal congressman Julio
Cesar Godoy was accused of being on the La Familia payroll by Mexican
federal officials last year. The congressman was impeached and went on
the run. He remains a fugitive.

Raul Benitez, a security analyst at the Autonomous University of
Mexico said the federal government is determined not to lose control
of Michoacan in part because of its strategic location between Mexico
and Guadalajara, the country's two largest cities. "Michoacan is a big
problem," said Mr. Benitez, who fears the violence that plagues the
state could contaminate the capital and Guadalajara.

Unlike Mexico's other cartels, La Familia and the Templars have a
messianic creed and strive to gain popular support among the local
population. This worries Mexican officials who see the drug
traffickers taking on some of the characteristics of guerrilla
fighters, said Mr. Benitez.

Indeed, Michoacan is a prime example of why some military analysts and
government officials in the U.S. worry Mexico's drugs war could take
on the characteristics of an insurgency, where drug gangs try to
displace Mexico's government.

Last year, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the violence in
Mexico was starting to resemble a "narco-insurgency," but her comments
were batted down by President Barack Obama days later.

Some academics think the comparison is not a stretch-at least in
places like Michoacan, a state of 4.3 million. "La Familia is the de
facto go-to governance system in communities that are largely
abandoned by the state. If you need anything, from medicine to loans,
they are the ones people turn to," said Mr. McDonald.