Policía Comunitaria

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.