Michoacán: Cartels harass community police forces

TANGAMANDAPIO (AP and EFE).— Community police forces are increasingly targeted by drug cartels, authorities said Monday.

Michoacán state attorney general Adrian Lopez confirmed that gunmen linked to drug cartels shot and killed seven members of a community police force in the town of Coahuayana over the weekend.

The attack came just days after seven members of an indigenous community police force were kidnapped, apparently by cartel members, and made to go through “hell” in another town in the state before being released on Friday.

Ghost towns

As turf wars between drug gangs have turned many rural areas into ghost towns, many places have turned to “community police forces,” made up of mostly untrained residents who volunteer or receive a small salary to protect the population.

Community police forces, a practice more common in indigenous communities —which have centuries of experience in organizing and defending their communities—, enjoy greater public trust compared to the so-called “self-defense groups” that emerged in the state of Michoacán between 2013 and 2014 to combat cartels but were soon infiltrated by organized crime.

Although they enjoy the trust of other residents, the community guards do not have the arsenal to confront the cartels that want to dispossess them of their lands.

Route for transfer

Lopez, the state prosecutor, said Sunday’s attack in Coahuayana was linked to disputes between drug trafficking groups seeking control of the coastal zone, a major route for cocaine shipments from the sea.

“Everything depends on the determination of those who are part of criminal groups to position themselves in the territory and carry out illegal activities, mainly drug trafficking,” he said.

Coahuayana, which sits on the Pacific coast near the Colima state border, is a particularly attractive location for cartels; speedboats transporting cocaine from South America have a direct route to the community, but they often leave bales of cocaine with tracking devices at sea to be located and brought ashore.

“The coastal area of ​​Michoacán and Colima has been ideal for recovering drug packages originating from South America,” Lopez said.

The CJNG, suspect

Although no one in Coahuayana dares to say which cartel was responsible for the murders, suspicions immediately focus on the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel (CJNG), which has been active in the area for some time.

This organization is also suspected of the kidnapping of seven community police officers — six men and one woman — who were taken captive last Tuesday and released on Friday in Tangamandapio, an indigenous Purépecha town in the state of Michoacán.

“Kuarichas”

These traditional guards are known as “Kuárichas” in Purépecha. In indigenous villages, these types of forces have legal status to deal with minor crimes.

Following the kidnapping, a massive search operation was launched involving helicopters and members of the state police and the military. No one said who kidnapped them or what was done to them, but suspicion once again fell on the CJNG, which is based in the neighboring state of the same name.

After his release, one of the guards, Brayan Javier, said that “the truth is that it was hell to be there. There were so many things that happened.”

Union and strength

Another of the rescued guards, Luis Reyes, said that his release was thanks to the unity and strength of the Purépecha community that collaborated in the search efforts.

“Thanks to all the people, to all the Purépecha people, to the indigenous people, who are strong,” he said. “And to all the personnel of the corporation who also supported us.”

While Reyes and other residents remain convinced that indigenous resistance and their ties to the community are enough to repel the cartels, that is not entirely clear.

In recent months, in the state of Chiapas — on the border with Guatemala and one of the areas with the highest indigenous density in the country — the region has largely come under the control of rival criminal groups, forcing many of the state’s residents to give up and flee to neighboring Guatemala.