High noon at not-ok corral

He defended his home like it was the Alamo. A 77-year-old rancher gave drug-cartel thugs the fight of their lives when they tried to take possession of his sprawling property in northern Mexico, becoming a folk hero in a region ravaged by violence. Alejo Garza Tamez turned his humble farmhouse into a fortress for his last stand -- lining up his numerous hunting rifles in windows and doorways -- after receiving an ultimatum on Nov. 13 from the drug-gang guerrillas to vacate within 24 hours or die. The lionhearted rancher was ready when two truckloads of heavily armed gang members returned the next morning. "He'd told me he'd gotten threats, but he didn't notify the authorities. He never trusted them," his daughter Sandra Garza told Telediario Nocturno. Authorities said the cartel first rolled up that Saturday to Garza's ranch, located about 15 miles outside of Ciudad Victoria, to tell him the house he'd built by hand 34 years ago was on land they needed to expand their cocaine and marijuana routes to the US border. Garza immediately dismissed all the workers on his ranch and told them not to come to work the next day. Then the hunter and gun collector gathered up every weapon he could muster. He perched guns in the windows and doors, lining the floors with extra ammo. And he waited in the dark and silence...more

Also see the previously posted Alejandro Garza and his Border War