Mexico's police for traditional and indigenous communities come under fire from drug cartels

TANGAMANDAPIO, Mexico (AP) — Police forces of Mexico's traditional and indigenous communities are increasingly coming under deadly fire from drug cartels, authorities said Monday.

Adrián López, the attorney general of the western state of Michoacan, confirmed that gunmen with links to drug cartels shot dead seven members of the municipal police in the city of Coahuayana over the weekend.

The community guards were killed just days after seven members of an indigenous community police unit were kidnapped. They were apparently abducted by cartel gunmen and tortured in another town in Michoacán before being released on Friday.

In view of the turf wars between the cartels, depopulated rural towns in Mexico, In many places, “community police” are deployed, i.e. relatively untrained citizens who work voluntarily or for a small salary to protect the citizens.

More common in indigenous cities – which have centuries of experience in organization and defense – The community police are a more established and trustworthy force as the ephemeral “Self-defense” squads that flourished in Michoacan between 2013 and 2014 in the fight against the cartels, but were quickly corrupted.

But despite enjoying the trust of their fellow citizens, the community guards cannot withstand the firepower of the cartels that are targeting their land.

López, the prosecutor, said the attack in Coahuayana on Saturday was linked to drug fights Cartels control the coastal regiona major route for the landing of cocaine shipments by sea.

“This is about the decision of members of criminal groups to conquer territory and carry out illegal activities, especially drug smuggling,” he said.

Coahuayana (koh-why-YAH-nah), located on the Pacific coast near the neighboring state of Colima, is particularly attractive to the cartels. Speedboats transporting cocaine from South America have a direct route here, but often throw floating bales of cocaine with tracking devices out to sea to be picked up and brought to shore.

“The area along the coast of Michoacan and Colima is ideal for picking up packages of cocaine from South America,” said López. “The Navy has seized countless packages of cocaine.”

Although no one in Coahuayana wanted to say which gang had committed the murders, suspicion immediately fell on the Jalisco New Generation Cartelwhich has been active in the region for a long time.

The cartel is also suspected of being responsible for the kidnapping of seven community guards – six men and one woman – who were abducted last Tuesday and released on Friday in the indigenous community of Purepecha in Tangamandapio (tahn-gah-man-dah-Pee-oh) in Michoacan.

These traditional officials are known in Purepecha as “Kuárichas” (KWAH-rich-ahs). In indigenous towns, such forces have the legal status to prosecute minor offenses.

The seven were kidnapped on Tuesday and a large-scale search operation was launched with helicopters, military and state police. No one wanted to say who kidnapped them or what was done to them, but suspicion once again fell on the Jalisco cartel, which is based in the neighboring state of the same name.

One of the officers, Brayan Javier, said after his release: “The truth is, it was hell because of a lot of things that happened there.”

Another of the rescued guards, Luis Reyes, said their release was thanks to the unity and strength of the Purepecha community, which helped in the search operation.

“Thanks to the whole city, all the people of Purepecha, we are strong,” said Reyes.

While Reyes and the others remain convinced that the resilience of indigenous peoples and their community ties It is far from clear whether the cartels can be fended off.

In recent months, the southern state of Chiapas – one of the most indigenous parts of Mexico – near the border with Guatemala has essentially fallen under the control of rival drug gangs, prompting some Chiapas residents to give up and flee to neighboring Guatemala.