Tempers boiled over into violence on Monday as the Mexican military moved into Apatzingan and the surrounding communities of Tierra Caliente after armed vigilante groups launched an offensive in an apparent attempt to rid the area of the influence of the Knights Templar cartel.

Exchanges of gunfire have been reported between the military and members of the "autodefensas" who refused to put down their weapons.

A grainy video posted to Youtube purports to show the shooting of an unarmed man by a member of the military. The deceased in the video was identified as 40-year-old Mario Torres Perez, who was said to be unarmed at the time of the shooting. The report cannot be independently verified at this time.

According to the Mexican news site Informador, Michoacan's Governor Fausto Vallejas personally viited the municipal building in Apatzingan which was set on fire earlier as the Mexican military moved into the area. The news site said that the federal government is taking over security in Tierra Caliente at the request of the state government as violence has sprung out of control.

The AFP is reporting that the civilian defense forces are accusing the military of killing four individuals in the operation, including an 11-year-old girl. The size of the military convoy moving into the area was said to be approximately 200 soldiers and federal police.

By most accounts, it is a large majority of the civilian defense forces that are refusing to put down their weapons in this remote area where trust for the government runs very low.

"There is no law here. The decisions are taken here in the mountains, in the hideouts of the Knights Templar leaders," Apatzingan priest Gregorio Lopez said to the BBC. "They are the ones who decide. Here the public institutions are mere puppets."

The violence began on Monday as the vigilante forces took on a massive offensive, taking over the small communities which surround Apatzingan, which is reported to be a Knights Templar stronghold.