The head of the Mexican House of Representatives, Silvano Aureoles, is launching an investigation into accusations from Senator Luisa Maria Calderon that members of the Michoacan Senate met with members of the Knights Templar cartel. In a radio interview yesterday, Luisa Calderon, who is the sister of former Mexican President Felipe Calderon, stated that "if we received the Templars in the Senate the other day, I don't see why we can't meet with their oponents, who are screaming for respect for their lives."
Aureoles spoke today of the gravity of the claim: "It is important that we look at this carefully: we don't want end up in a situation like the one Colombia lived through a few years ago; where not only was this kind of relationship already in existence between politicians and members of organized crime, but they also managed to have cartel members elected to congress. The government and its intelligence agencies need to place careful attention on this and it needs to be precise: it can't just stay in the vicinity of circumspection and rumor."
The investigation comes after ex-Michoacan governor Leonel Godoy demanded an examination of Senator Calderon's claims: "Michoacan could be in conditions of ungovernability," he sated. In response to Senator Calderon's claims, the president of the Securities Commission, Omar Fayad, admitted that on the 17th of October there had been a meeting between the Michoacan senate and members from a group seeking peace in the region of Apatzingan. However, Fayad stated that "I wouldn't dare confirm or deny that these people were sent from the Knights Templar...I'm not from Michoacan, I don't know them."
The Knights Templar Cartel (Caballeros Templarios) is on of the most powerful cartels in Mexico. They are made up of former members of the La Familia Michoacana cartel and control much of the drug trade on Mexico's Paficif coast.
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