Nestora is Finally Free

FNS News: After spending two years and seven months behind bars, Mexican community police commander Nestora Salgado was freed on Friday, March 18. Surrounded by family members, community police comrades, parents of the 43 disappeared Ayotzinapa college students and other supporters, an elated and defiant Salgado emerged from the infirmary of the Tepepan women’s prison in Mexico City dressed in the uniform of Guerrero’s CRAC police force.

Suddenly holding up a rifle, Salgado proclaimed, “I am free and it is the freedom of the people. We are not going to allow them to continue stepping all over us, and so they don’t continue repressing us, we will use this if necessary.”

Indigenous Community Police Look Back, Look Forward

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.