You can tell who CNN and the Mexican .gov consider the real threat

by the title: Mexican forces struggle to rein in armed vigilantes battling drug cartel
The cartels are up-to-date on their bribes, so the 'vigilantes' are obviously a bigger threat.

Some vigilante groups have vowed not to hand over their guns until cartel leaders are captured.

"We want them to go rescue the towns where the people are still being massacred by organized crime," said Estanislao Beltran, a spokesman for the self-defense groups. "When there is peace and security in our state, we will give up our weapons."

Residents, meanwhile, told CNNMexico they're caught in the middle of spiraling violence that shows no sign of slowing. And some observers say it's not clear the government crackdown is working.

"Federal authorities, instead of imposing order, instead of rescuing the cities, they are more like referees," Jose Antonio Ortega, president of the Citizens Council for Public Safety and Criminal Justice, told CNNMexico this week. "They are watching the civil war in Michoacan."

Mr. Beltran, a suggestion: NEVER give up your arms.

I found this article through this one, which has some interesting thoughts.
The Mexican people have nowhere to turn; and this, in my view, has always been by design. Disarmed and suppressed while government-aided cartels bleed the public dry, it is no wonder that many Mexicans have turned to illegal immigration as a means of escape. The Mexican government, in turn, has always fought for a more porous border with the U.S. exactly because it wants dissenting and dissatisfied citizens to run to the United States instead of staying and fighting back. My personal distaste for illegal immigration has always been predicated on the fact that it allows the criminal oligarchy within Mexico to continue unabated without opposition. Unhappy Mexicans can simply run away from their problems to America and feed off our wide-open welfare system. They are never forced to confront the tyranny within their own country. Under this paradigm, Mexico would never change for the better.
...
The Mexican government has decided to reward the brave people of Michoacan with the threat of military invasion and disarmament.
In some cases, government forces have indeed fired upon militia supporters, killing innocents while exposing the true intentions of the Mexican political structure.
Mainstream media coverage of the situation in the western states of Mexico has been minimal at best; and I find the more I learn about the movement in the region, the more I find a kinship with them. Whether we realize it or not, we are fighting the same fight. We are working toward the same goal of liberty, though we speak different languages and herald from different cultures. Recent government propaganda accusing Michoacan militias of “working with rival cartels” should ring familiar with those of us in the American liberty movement. We are the new “terrorists,” the new bogeymen of the faltering American epoch. We are painted as the villains; and in this, strangely, I find a considerable amount of solace.

If the liberty movement were not effective in its activism, if we did not present a legitimate threat to the criminal establishment, they would simply ignore us rather than seek to vilify us.