A rural volunteer police force in Mexico, overwhelmed by local kidnappings, has enlisted children as young as 12 to join its ranks, showcasing the challenge some parts of the country face in dealing with organized crime.
Brandishing rifles and sticks and concealing their faces, boys and girls paraded around Ayahualtempa’s local sports field this week before joining a patrol, a mountain village in Guerrero.
“We can’t study because of lawlessness,” one recruited teenager told the Milenio television channel, explaining how he had learned to shoot a gun after a handful of lessons.
Violence has escalated in Guerrero, one of the poorest states in Mexico. In early January, a drone attack purportedly carried out by drug cartel La Familia Michoacana killed around 30 people, according to human rights groups.
Four members of a local family have gone missing since Friday when they were kidnapped, according to the Guerrero state prosecutor’s office.
Antonio Toribio, a local official, said the minors are reinforcing the volunteer police force and will do their best to guard the village of about 700 inhabitants while adults search for the missing people. “We’re not going to allow them to kidnap us any more, or for people to keep disappearing,” Toribio said.
This is not the first time minors have been armed in Guerrero, where authorities have struggled to counter powerful drug trafficking gangs.
(Reporting by Javier Verdin in Acapulco and Diego Oré in Mexico City, Writing by Isabel Woodford; Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)
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