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| Illegal logging in Veracruz |
These groups have variously organized to respond to the
threat of organized crime and to the illegal or excessive exploitation of
natural resources.
The activity has increased in the past three years. It has also
changed, with disturbing evidence that organized crime is leveraging the
populist movement to its own advantage.
For example, though it was sparked by murders in the municipalities of Ayutla and Tixtla in Guerrero, the phenomenon has resulted in community patrols of about 500 masked men with AK-47s showing up in Tepalcatepec, Michoacán. In Tepalcatepec the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación, or CJNG) may be using community policing as a cover to expand their plaza in areas controlled by the Knights Templar (Los Caballeros Templarios) Cartel.
The acts, whether genuine community responses or covers for organized
crime, are assuredly against the law. Articles 11, 25, 21, 20 and 17 of the
Mexican Constitution state clearly that no non-state entity can detain people,
use weapons, or control access to communities or transit routes. However, the
new PRI administration of Enrique Peña Nieto has expressed a degree of tolerance
and even support for some groups, particularly in the state of Guerrero.
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| In the State of Mexico |
As well, Reforma notes that the community police in Acatlán,
Guerrero, may have a legal argument under articles 2 and 39 of Convention 169
of the International Labour Organization (ILO), which allows for compensation
for those offenses that are against ancestral traditions. Guerrero is surely
where such groups are best established: in the mountainous Costa Chica
region, a total of 15 municipalities have now organized civil defence units to
protect themselves from kidnapping, extortion, and robbery.
Other examples have included the indigenous Seri people of Sonora, who
have organized to defend their territory in Punta Chueca, about 150 kilometers
from Hermosillo and near the Bahía de Kino.
Back in Michoacán, the Purépecha
Cherán community faced down organized crime and illegal loggers in the town
of Ostula in the Aquila township. Poor campesinos
had had enough: they took up arms to defend themselves, but only after 27
activists had been killed and another five “disappeared”.
In the municipalities of Ascención a Galeana in Chihuahua, Mennonite
and Mormon neighbours armed themselves to stop kidnappings, extortions, and
murders of family members by organized crime.
And in the city of Chihuahua itself citizens in the Obrera
neighbourhood took up arms and established vigilantes to confront thieves,
though they pulled back when police intervened.
Vigilante groups have appeared also in the State of Mexico
surrounding Mexico City. In three municipalities – Amatepec, Tlatlaya and
Tejupilco – neighbours have established armed groups to confront elements of
the La Familia Michoacana Cartel. But that response has had dire consequences:
three days after announcing the creation of the groups, their leader, Luis
Enrique Granillo, was
kidnapped with five others. That was on February 15, and the six have yet
to be heard from. They may yet join the country’s list of almost 27,000 “disappeared”.
Most recently, last week indigenous groups in the southern
state of Chiapas took up machetes and clubs in order to demand the closing of
Canadian-owned gold mines because of their excessive use of water resources.
The fear faced by many is that the growth in civil defence
groups in Mexico will then dovetail into an expansion of paramilitary organisations,
some with cartel influence. The challenge will then be to see what the response
will be on the part of the Mexican state. Will it indulge in increased militarization,
or will it acknowledge that the federal government has ceded control in some
remote areas, as happened with the Zapatista movement in Chiapas?
For related articles please see:
February 14: Mexico’s
interior minister expresses “solidarity, trust, and support” with self-defence
groups
Twitter: @TimothyEWilson
Email: lapoliticaeslapolitica [at] gmail [dot] com
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