Mexican soldiers take over cartel-dominated Michoacan town

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s Defense Department has announced that soldiers have rolled into a township dominated by the Jalisco cartel for the first time in months. The army said Wednesday it had sent what appeared to be hundreds of troops and trucks into the township of Aguililla, in western Michoacan state, on Tuesday. The troops broke up a civilian blockade of a small army base in Aguililla that had blocked its entrances since last summer. For months, troops never abandoned the base, but they never ventured out of it either. The department said the government was starting “a dialogue for the pacification of Aguililla.”