VIDEO: Children Training and Joining with Auto Defense Community Groups in Guerrero

Yaqui for Borderland Beat from: Sin Embargo

By: Lourdes Chávez

Cirino Plácido Valerio, leader of the Regional Coordinator of Community Authorities of the Founding Peoples (CRAC-PF), wants to clarify that his group did not recruit or involve children in the service of defending the people, however, he added that the "three levels of governments" are responsible for establishing peace and security.

On Saturday, a video of children of both genders, between 7 and 10 years old, was broadcast, performing martial exercises, with sticks as weapons, and one in front read a statement saying that they were survivors of the massacre on January 27 , where 12 dead and four injured from their locality were reported. They warned that "for every community member that Los Ardillos and Los Rojos kill, we are going to kill 10 hit men".   VIDEO Next  Page:

              

The leader of the Regional Coordinator of Community Authorities of the Founding Peoples (CRAC-PF), Cirino Plácido Valerio, said that out of desperation , residents of Rincón de Chautla, in Chilapa, involved children in their community police group .

He explained that the town is in the midst of two groups of drug traffickers who have been fighting for territory for several years, and continue to operate in the region, due to the complicity that exists with municipal, state and military authorities.

In a telephone consultation, Plácido Valerio reported that in Chilapa, "there is indeed a desperation in the face of harassment of crime , the residents of Rincón de Chautla are between two fires, that of Los Rojos and Los Ardillos."

He said the officials say that if any community member leaves its community, the army will disarm them. "They do not attack the causes, they are threatening and intimidating people." Photo: The South

He clarified that they  do not agree that they have involved children in the service of defending the people, however, he added that the governments of the three levels are responsible for establishing peace and security.

However, he recalled that in the history of Chilapa in recent years, when Los Ardillos occupied the municipal seat and some towns, assuming the role of community police, to evict Los Rojos, the people of Rincón de Chautla denounced them and asked for help of  the authorities, and nobody paid any attention to him.

In this context, the villagers organized and removed the criminals from their territory, and among other aggressions recently have been the assassinations of  their comrades, the Nahua councilor of the Indigenous Council of Government, José Lucio Bartolo Faustino, and the delegate of the National Indigenous Congress, Modesto Verales Sebastián, from the indigenous communities of Xicotlán and Buenavista.

"They had years organizing the Community Police to resist the violence, the extortion and the imposition of the poppy planting by two criminal groups, "Los Ardillos and Los Rojos," denounced jointly with the National Indigenous Congress (CNI) , the Indigenous Council of Government (CIG), and the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN), on May 5.

Government Complicity:

Cirino Plácido warned that the area remains under the threat of crime . He regretted that the authorities of the state government and the federation, which have intelligence services and know who the criminals are, "that does not have an interest in them and they do nothing because they are accomplices of crime."

Once again Cirino Plácido reiterated that the community members are nearly being held hostage, for if they leave they will be disarmed.

Cirino Plácido said that the project of the Community Police is noble, and seeks to restore the rule of law, and peace through dialogue, "we have principles. The children have the right to life, those who are adults, and we live, and enjoy, it is our responsibility to fight crime. "

However, he added that "people are afraid, although they denounce involving children: the same risk is run by children submerged in this violence. In desperation, people can take up arms against crime because they can not find another way out."

He insisted that the government knows who the leaders of the criminal gangs are, who traffic the drugs and who produce them. "We see the desperation, that there is no confidence in the Government that turns a blind eye. There is no governance, there is a vacuum of power. Crime has agreements with all agencies of the Government. "

On the other hand, he emphasized that children and young people are getting involved in crime and it is useless for Chilapa to be full of soldiers. While the state government makes "irresponsible statements" about children in the Community Police, but they do not fight the root causes.

He clarified that Chilapa, Acapulco and Chilpancingo are conflict zones, "with groups of criminal delinquency that are called community police, and are tolerated by the military and police."

"We see how the strategy is to intimidate and subdue the population, because there is no governance. The government's relationship with crime became a business, the distribution of money to the authorities that leaves the population alone. "

It was also launched a campaign against the group of Community Police of Xaltianguis, Acapulco, known as "Los Dumbos" , who shot the members of the Union of Peoples and Organizations of the State of Guerrero (UPOEG).

He indicated that the community system has principles, legitimacy:  "it is not to sow terror, they are subject to the mandates of the people and its members have assembly minutes, as is required to be called "community".

He demanded that the Guerrero State Human Rights Commission (Codehum) press for compliance with the law.

"It really is a difficult moment, on all sides, because of insecurity, poverty, and mainly the lack of information which leads to the integration of young people to the hit list. The war of the poor against the poor is complicated, and the government does nothing. "

He also mentioned the murder of the coordinator of the CRAC of San Luis Acatlán, Julián Cortés Flores, on April 13. "We can suspect that the government uses all the crime to get rid of the groups they organize to fight crime. Only when there is deadly violence  do they come ".