Children between 11 and 15 years old took up arms to take care of their community, in the José Joaquín de Herrera municipality of the state of Guerrero, southern Mexico, while a group of adults has gone out to search for a family missing since last December 19. January.
This Wednesday in the indigenous community of Ayahualtempa, municipality of José Joaquín de Herrera, located in the central region of Guerrero, members of the Regional Coordinator of Community Authorities-Founding Peoples (CRAC-PF) protested as members of a group of 5 girls and 15 children, whom they “armed”, although some only had reeds as rifles.
The member of the CRAC-PF, Luis Morales Rojas, member of the Nahuatl Government Council, said that the older young people will join the search for four members of a family that was kidnapped on January 19, and that the rest They will do surveillance work.
The children, he said, were trained in the handling of weapons such as 22-caliber rifles; 20, 16 and 410 gauge shotguns, as well as pistols.
In the event held during the assembly attended by the majority of the nearly 1,000 attendees of Nahua origin, they demanded that the president of Mexico Andrés Manuel López Obrador and the governor of Guerrero, Evelyn Salgado, help locate the indigenous family.
The family is made up of Cecilia Gaspar Hernández, 50 years old; her husband José Teodoro Domingo Ortiz, 52, and her sons Roberto and Gaudencio, 30 and 22 years old, who on January 19 were kidnapped at the point known as Zacatepec, where they were grazing their cattle.
On the town’s sports field, the minors, most with rifles and shotguns, although some only with reeds, showed armed training movements.
The decision to integrate minors into the CRAC-PF was a decision of the assembly held last Monday by the Traditional Council of the Nahuatl Government, the Commissariat of Communal Property, municipal commissioners and the CRAC-PF, “in the face of the resurgence of violence” that has permeated municipalities adjacent to the Montaña region, for which the criminal group Los Ardillos is held responsible.
“Those who are shooting us down, those who are kidnapping our people are Los Ardillos (criminal group). We are aware that there are communities that are controlled by them, but we have not provoked anyone, they provoke us, that is why we ask the municipal, state and federal authorities to support us with security agents,” said Morales Rojas.
According to authorities records, the criminal group Los Ardillos has devastated the central area of Guerrero in recent years to maintain control against other criminal groups.
After the assembly, the community authorities reiterated that the actions of their community police are legal, so they demanded respect and that no authority make any accusations.
“We remind the authorities that the actions of the Community Police are legal, the law recognizes their function as acts of authority, we have the endorsement of our communities and different laws and treaties, among which the Mexican Constitution, the Constitution of the state of Guerrero, Law 701 of Indigenous Law and Culture, the Public Security Law of Guerrero as well as Convention 169 of the ILO,” they indicated.
In that area, children have been integrated into the Community Police due to the insecurity and violence they experience and which has been constantly reported, without them until now having security guarantees.
In June 2019, 19 children joined the Community Police and in 2020 another group of minors was presented, who were removed in 2022, when federal and state government officials led a meeting in which they committed to providing security with the military, Guardia National and State Police.
