Military takes control of Mexican port

This comes in the wake of continued troubles in Michoacan, which is still a hot bed of violence between drug cartels and more recently, vigilante groups.

The Mexican government said that the objective of the takeover is to strengthen the rule of law, as well as the “legality of the daily commercial activities of the port.”

APM Terminals is an operator at the port. Tom Boyd, spokesperson for APM Terminals told Port Strategy that the move could only serve to strengthen the port’s security and thereby its operations.

Mr Boyd told PS that its operations and construction programme are continuing in Lazaro Cardenas as normal.

He added: “We have been informed by the government of the changes carried out in the port in order to further increase its security. We welcome this preventive security measure and we will continue to coordinate our local operations with the new officials that will be covering different port authority duties.”

The trouble is the port has a reputation of being attractive to smugglers. The Knights Templar cartel has terrorised the area and the port since it expanded its drug smuggling activities from methamphetamine production to extortion.

Lazaro Cardenas handles the second highest volume of cargo per annum in Mexico.