FNS News: Twenty years ago, a revolution in policing and community justice broke out in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero. Fed up with constant robberies and sexual assaults, Indigenous communities in the Costa Rica and La Montana regions of Guerrero formed armed community police forces that grew into the Regional Coordinator of Community Authorities (CRAC).
Taking root in scores of Mixtec, Nahua and other communities, the CRAC was widely credited with significantly curbing criminal activities. Concomitant with a volunteer policing concept, the CRAC implemented a popular justice system of reeducation and community work.
The MexicoBlog of the Americas Program, a fiscally sponsored program of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), is written by Laura Carlsen. I monitor and analyze international press on Mexico, with a focus on security, immigration, human rights and social movements for peace and justice, from a feminist perspective. And sometimes I simply muse.
Showing posts with label community police. Show all posts
Showing posts with label community police. Show all posts
Apr 20, 2015
Media reports say Mexican police were involved in January killings
Reuters: Three media outlets said on Sunday that Mexican federal police killed 16 unarmed people in two separate attacks in January, appearing to contradict an account by the federal government that the deaths could have been caused by friendly fire.
Aristegui Noticias, Univision and Proceso published similar accounts of the deaths in Apatzingan in the restive western state of Michoacan. They were the latest reports to allege abuses by security forces in the country. Read more.
Aristegui Noticias, Univision and Proceso published similar accounts of the deaths in Apatzingan in the restive western state of Michoacan. They were the latest reports to allege abuses by security forces in the country. Read more.
Dec 17, 2014
Mexico's Vigilantes Resurface, Faulting Government For Failing To Take Down Knights Templar Cartel
International Business Times: Mexico’s vigilantes are back, and angry. The so-called self-defense groups that rose up against drug cartels in the turbulent state of Michoacán last year regrouped over the weekend, took up AK-47s, and blocked roads in several cities, announcing their return in full force -- a development that underscores how the security situation in parts of Mexico is still dire, despite the president's two-year-old promise to fix it.
The vigilantes, known as “autodefensas,” took over roads in six cities across Michoacán state on Sunday, saying the federal government was failing to protect them from the Knights Templar cartel and another organized crime group known, strikingly, as Los Viagras. The vigilantes, many of whom for months have been part of a specialized military unit called the Rural Defense Forces, also complained about not receiving salaries or adequate support from the state. Read more.
The vigilantes, known as “autodefensas,” took over roads in six cities across Michoacán state on Sunday, saying the federal government was failing to protect them from the Knights Templar cartel and another organized crime group known, strikingly, as Los Viagras. The vigilantes, many of whom for months have been part of a specialized military unit called the Rural Defense Forces, also complained about not receiving salaries or adequate support from the state. Read more.
Dec 11, 2014
Mexico's Security Dilemma: The Rise of Michoacan's Militias
InSightCrime: Volunteer community policing has been a tradition in indigenous communities across Southern Mexico for centuries. Though controversial, advocates argue the practice is supported by international law and has been codified in the 1917 constitution that permits local frameworks for "the regulation and solution of internal conflicts."[1] These volunteer police forces vary in size and function, depending on the communities they serve. Their main job is to keep "internal" order, targeting petty thieves and, in the worse case scenario, rapists. In almost all areas, they are directly under the control of community elders rather than state or federal officials. In Guerrero, the state bordering Michoacan to the east, community police were given official recognition by the governor in the mid 1990s to calm unrest related to a crime wave and police repression in indigenous communities. Read more.
Jan 21, 2014
U.S. 'Interference' in Michoacan is the Last Thing Mexico Needs (La Jornada, Mexico)
WorldMeets
La Jornada – Original Article (Spanish)
January 20, 2014
A member of the community police of Michoacan, a vigilante group, in the home of the leader of the Knights Templar drug cartel [Caballeros Templarios], in Nueva Italia, Jan. 16. The raging drug conflict in the Mexican state has led to a loss of governance, with vigilate groups and drug cartels opposing one another and the government largely sidelined.
According to information released Jan. 15 by Germany's DPA News Agency, a senior U.S. State Department official remarked that the violence and loss of governance in Michoacan is "extremely worrisome," and characterized the situation as one of "communities that were already under pressure from drug traffickers and criminal gangs now caught in a battle between those who claim they are protecting them, and those using them for their own interests." She also said that the citizens affected fail to receive the necessary support from the central or local governments. Moreover, the official also said that the United States stands ready to provide assistance to the Mexican government in terms of the security operation undertaken few days ago by federal forces in the state.
Without denying the gravity of the events occurring on the territory of Michoacan and the type of problems they present for governing the region and country, the statements of this official are unwelcomed and irrelevant, to the extent that the situation she described is an internal affair of Mexico, and the solution exclusively for Mexicans. There is no reason for a foreign authority to in any way address the issue or to state its opinions on the situation. Read more.
La Jornada – Original Article (Spanish)
January 20, 2014
According to information released Jan. 15 by Germany's DPA News Agency, a senior U.S. State Department official remarked that the violence and loss of governance in Michoacan is "extremely worrisome," and characterized the situation as one of "communities that were already under pressure from drug traffickers and criminal gangs now caught in a battle between those who claim they are protecting them, and those using them for their own interests." She also said that the citizens affected fail to receive the necessary support from the central or local governments. Moreover, the official also said that the United States stands ready to provide assistance to the Mexican government in terms of the security operation undertaken few days ago by federal forces in the state.
Without denying the gravity of the events occurring on the territory of Michoacan and the type of problems they present for governing the region and country, the statements of this official are unwelcomed and irrelevant, to the extent that the situation she described is an internal affair of Mexico, and the solution exclusively for Mexicans. There is no reason for a foreign authority to in any way address the issue or to state its opinions on the situation. Read more.
Apr 12, 2013
Worry grows over Mexico vigilante movement
Armed citizen patrols fighting drug cartel violence join forces with a radical teachers union in Guerrero state opposed to an education reform law.
The Los Angeles Times
By Richard Fausset and Cecilia Sanchez
April 11, 2013
Mexico City - Debate is intensifying over armed vigilante patrols that have sprung up in crime-plagued sections of rural Mexico, particularly in the state of Guerrero, where some patrols joined forces this week with a radical teachers union that has been wreaking havoc with massive protests, vandalism and violent confrontations with police.
The two groups, on the surface, would appear to have little in common. The vigilante patrols, typically made up of masked campesinos, are among dozens that have emerged in the countryside in recent months, purporting to protect their communities from the depredations of the drug cartels. The state-level teachers union, meanwhile, has taken to the streets to protest a sweeping education reform law backed by Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto.
Their alliance was announced in a joint meeting Sunday. A leader of the vigilantes said they were joining with the teachers because it was the vigilantes' "watchword to fight against injustice." Read more.
The Los Angeles Times
By Richard Fausset and Cecilia Sanchez
April 11, 2013
Mexico City - Debate is intensifying over armed vigilante patrols that have sprung up in crime-plagued sections of rural Mexico, particularly in the state of Guerrero, where some patrols joined forces this week with a radical teachers union that has been wreaking havoc with massive protests, vandalism and violent confrontations with police.
The two groups, on the surface, would appear to have little in common. The vigilante patrols, typically made up of masked campesinos, are among dozens that have emerged in the countryside in recent months, purporting to protect their communities from the depredations of the drug cartels. The state-level teachers union, meanwhile, has taken to the streets to protest a sweeping education reform law backed by Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto.
Their alliance was announced in a joint meeting Sunday. A leader of the vigilantes said they were joining with the teachers because it was the vigilantes' "watchword to fight against injustice." Read more.
Feb 17, 2013
Constructing a community police in the town of Álvaro Obregón, Oaxaca
Strengthening the Struggle to Defend Territory on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec
February 11, 2013 in Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Juchitán
by Daniel Arellano Chávez, Proyecto Ambulante
Translated by El Enemigo Común
Today, February 10, 2013 is certainly a watershed in the struggle for the defense of the land and territory on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. After the successful resistance against the repression ordered by Oaxaca state governor Gabino Cué to shield Mareña Renovables, the peoples of the Isthmus are at a decisive moment in their struggle to defend their territory. The Assembly held today and the sizeable march in Álvaro Obregón has provided the ideal setting for announcing townspeople’s decisions, expelling false political leaders and their political parties, and beginning the construction of a Community Police.
At the old General Charis military quarters, the scene of the historic resistance of February 2, men and women from San Dionisio del Mar, San Mateo del Mar, Xadani, Emiliano Zapata, San Blas Atempa, Unión Hidalgo, and Juchitán, among other communities, came together in the morning to ratify their total rejection of the wind projects in the region and demand the immediate expulsion of Mareña Renovables from the territories of the Isthmus.
February 11, 2013 in Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Juchitán
by Daniel Arellano Chávez, Proyecto Ambulante
Translated by El Enemigo Común
Today, February 10, 2013 is certainly a watershed in the struggle for the defense of the land and territory on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. After the successful resistance against the repression ordered by Oaxaca state governor Gabino Cué to shield Mareña Renovables, the peoples of the Isthmus are at a decisive moment in their struggle to defend their territory. The Assembly held today and the sizeable march in Álvaro Obregón has provided the ideal setting for announcing townspeople’s decisions, expelling false political leaders and their political parties, and beginning the construction of a Community Police.
At the old General Charis military quarters, the scene of the historic resistance of February 2, men and women from San Dionisio del Mar, San Mateo del Mar, Xadani, Emiliano Zapata, San Blas Atempa, Unión Hidalgo, and Juchitán, among other communities, came together in the morning to ratify their total rejection of the wind projects in the region and demand the immediate expulsion of Mareña Renovables from the territories of the Isthmus.
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