Mexico’s government appears to be split about whether it should talk to armed vigilante groups, or treat them as criminals. President Andres Manuel López Obrador said Thursday he disagreed with his assistant interior secretary’s decision to attend a ceremony with vigilantes, who often call themselves “self-defense” groups. The debate came to a head Wednesday when Ricardo Peralta, an assistant secretary of the interior, attended the groundbreaking of an agricultural processing plant in the vigilante-dominated community of La Huacana in the western state of Michoacan.
