What’s the story on this?

Hey Rob -

the article mentions "Community Police" - - I've never heard of Community Police. what are they?

As I'm sure you know, our police have failed in our communities for decades, so communities started forming their own security forces to deal with criminal gangs.

In Michoacán, back when Peña Nieto was president, they were known as autodefensas, civilians tired of the inability, corruption and ineptitude of the police and government to tackle the criminal gangs, the extortions, and the kidnappings, so they organized themselves. Under the leadership of Dr. Mireles and Hipólito Mora they swept the state clean of the narco punks going from one region to another, community after community, organized military style but with help from the people, and just when they were at Apatzingan about to go after the biggest capos the federal government sent in the army to block their advance and try to disarm them. Then after a failed assassination attempt they framed Dr. Mireles and several others and sent him to jail for 3 years.

Here in Guerrero they are something quite different, nothing like the autodefensas of Michoacán. They began as traditional community police in remote indigenous communities, but soon it became apparent some of these community police were actually helping the criminals, so in Guerrero's case the line between the good guys and the bad guys remains quite blurry. The state government half-heartedly tried to disband them, then decided to recognize some of them. Perhaps you heard of Nestora Salgado? She was a Mexican living as a U.S. citizen up in Seattle where she had moved, but she came back to help her community in Olinalá, doing quite a bit to clean up the town before she stepped on influential toes and found herself framed for kidnapping and tossed in jail during Peña Nieto's term. Like he had done with Dr. Mireles, she was imprisoned far from her family and access to her was limited. Of course, since the charges against her were trumped up, she was eventually freed thanks to persistence by citizens and people in the international community, and now she is a Senadora in the Congreso Nacional.

In Petatlán a group of community police has had several run-ins with the local police and there have been several deaths on both sides. They had set up checkpoints at the entrances to town off and on over the past couple of years, and they seemed to be keeping out of the military's way but still doing their work. Some folks swear they are the good guys, others swear they work for criminals. I suspect there's a bit of truth to both sides.

But almost all Mexicans will agree that the increasing violence has a lot to do with the unimpeded flow of firearms from the USA into Mexico. Most are bought legally in Texas, but also other border states. No matter how much Mexico implores the U.S. government to do its share, absolutely nothing changes on the U.S. side and around a quarter million firearms a year continue entering Mexico apparently with no difficulty whatsoever. Thus the steady increase in shootings month after month, year after year throughout the republic. Lots of Mexicans are quite upset that in meeting after meeting with U.S. authorities we get no concrete action from them, not even promises, just belligerent bullying and continued racist attacks.

Sad story but in all my time in Mexico, I would never drive or be in a vehicle driving at that time of the night, especially there. It's one thing to be out and about in a club or bar and celebrating late like say in Ixtapa than driving through small towns and little traffic in the middle of the night. And not stopping at a roadblock? Try to do that anywhere and you will likely get shot.

My very first day in Mexico in 1974 found me driving from Acapulco to Zihuatanejo, leaving the Acapulco city limits right around sunset and driving the 2-lane blacktop road with no map, just a vague idea how to get where we were going. That was at the height of the Guerra Sucia when Lucio Cabañas had kidnapped Rubén Figueroa Figueroa, the father of the disgraced governor who was forced to resign in 1996. Around Pie de la Cuesta we hit the first military checkpoint in the middle of nowhere. They said they were looking for guns and drugs, but only gave us a cursory inspection and seeing my mother, younger brother, an afghan hound and me along with a jumble of luggage, they mostly just smiled and waved us through. Dumb gringos driving in dangerous territory at night. Never did that again.

We have a family member flying into ZIH at 9:15pm in November. Will it be too dangerous to drive from the airport to Troncones? It will be dark...

I have flown in on those last flights of the day. In my opinion no issues from Airport to town. Town to Troncones……..I am unable to advise.

D

No it will not be too dangerous for them.

--
Tim Sullivan

"Community police" are formed in Mexico following the same logic that armed militias are formed in the USA -- to meet a law enforcement requirement not being fulfilled by local police authorities. There the similarities stop; Mexican community police as often as not front for organized crime. They are supposedly sanctioned by the state government, and in some areas they are. But if such "sanctions" to not arrive from the state government, who is going to do anything about it?

i disagree somewhat with your characterization of them. While there have been instances of blurred lines and criminal connections, the policía comunitaria mostly enjoy popular support where they are truly the good guys. I Petatlán the jury is still out, but one must remember that conflict in the region has been going on for decades, since the Guerra Sucia.

I've documented quite a bit of the rise and fall of some of these groups back when they were still called Guerrilleros before the rise of the policía comunitaria.

Take a walk down the nostalgia trail and read some of my old forgotten articles on my first blog from over 10 years ago.

Here's a good place to start regarding the problems in the sierra of Petatlán and Zihuatanejo. The articles from this point and more recent may be of interest. Many if not most of the stuff about guerrilleros will be in Spanish.

http://zihuatanejo-ixtapa.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2009-03-21T13:02:00-06:00&max-results=5&reverse-paginate=true

I have a mildly tangential story and wonder if anyone has feedback.
About a month ago I took a calculated risk and took a night bus from Puerto Escondido to Acapulco.
It left around midnight and arrived about 9AM.
I immediately caught a bus to Zihuatanejo which was my final destination.
I had done some research and read a gringo report about the bus getting help up about 4 years ago, but no recent incidents.
Do you think I was particularly foolish in traveling at night?
Of course the ride was uneventful!