With rifle in hand, a group of 20 minors joined the ranks of the self-defense groups this Wednesday in Ayahualtempa, in the State of Guerrero.
The community police of the area, an armed body formed 28 years ago by residents of 16 municipalities in the southeast of Guerrero and members of the Regional Coordinator of Community Authorities and Founding Peoples (CRAC), swore in the new members a few days after An armed group kidnapped four people from the Nahua community.
The shocking image of children between 12 and 17 years old carrying a weapon puts the focus on the authorities, who have left multiple communities besieged by organized crime helpless.
As if they were soldiers, an adult yells at the 15 boys and five girls lined up on a sports field to stay firm.
The children, with their faces covered, respond.
They then raise the weapon in their hands and place it on their shoulders.
Some of them do not exceed one meter in height, they are all dressed in a military green t-shirt, with the legend “Community Police”.
They are not the first children to join the self-defense groups in Mexico, but every time a new squad of minors is promoted, society and social networks explode.
The CRAC has justified the drastic measure with the claim of the authorities' inefficiency.
They have also assured that they will only carry out surveillance tasks.
The community police in this region have for several years confronted the drug cartels and criminal organizations that operate in one of the poorest places in the country.
The last conflict they have suffered was the kidnapping of a couple and their two children on January 19, when the family was working their cattle.
The residents have targeted the criminal group Los Ardillos, one of the criminal groups that disputes drug trafficking in that entity.
The operations of the state and federal forces have not been able to find the kidnapped people in six days, which has pushed CRAC to take measures and complain publicly, as they have explained.
Three children members of the Ayahualtempa self-defense groups with their rifles in hand.
Dassaev Téllez Adame (CUARTOSCURO)
Organized crime has not stopped besieging some communities in Guerrero.
Two crime groups, La Familia Michoacana and Los Tlacos, paralyzed the tourist town of Taxco this week, after the murder of a public transport driver and the murder of two police officers from the State Prosecutor's Office, whose bodies were found next to a highway this Wednesday.
Acapulco, which is still recovering from Hurricane
Otis
, is going through a similar situation.
For weeks it has had half-baked public transportation, because the workers, tired of the violence and threats, do not want to return to their jobs.
The governor, Evelyn Salgado, has tried to silence criticism with the departure of her state Security Secretary, Evelio Méndez, who resigned in the midst of the wave of violence, citing medical problems.
This Thursday, when all the media reported the formation of the Army of child soldiers, Salgado presented the new head of the Secretariat, Rolando Solano Rivera, at a public event.
She did so accompanied by the head of the Army, Luis Cresencio Sandoval, and the Secretary of Federal Security, Rosa Icela Rodríguez, who congratulated Méndez for his work and assured that he will have some place in the public Administration as compensation.
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