These images show young children armed with rifles who have joined a vigilante group in protest against the murders of 10 indigenous people in Mexico.
The 19 children were presented as “community police officers” in the municipality of Chilapa de Alvarez and Jose Joaquin de Herrera, in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero.
They are the newest members of the Regional Coordinator of Communitary Authorities and are aged between six and 15 years old. Local media report the youngsters are being trained to fight against violence in the region.
The children were presented at a press conference where they acted like soldiers, posing with their rifles and taking aim on the ground.
The recruits had paraded through the Alcozacan community where roads have been blocked after 10 indigenous musicians belonging to the band ‘Sensacion’ were recently murdered.
Prosecutor Jorge Zuriel de los Santos Barrila alleged the musicians had been attacked by a criminal gang called ‘Los Ardillos’ whilst travelling in two vans to Alcozacan.
Reports state when they saw they were being attacked they speeded up but one was hit by a grenade, killing five men, while the other band members had their throats slit. A 15-year-old boy was among the victims.
Bernardino Sanchez Luna, one of the leaders of the community police, told local media “they have seen the government has no skill or interest in defending indigenous people from criminal gangs”.
David Sanchez Luna, the coordinator of the group told reporters the children had been recruited with the main goal of asking President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to visit the community and attend to their requests.
Luna said the children under 12 are only be trained but those aged between 12 and 15 would be armed and guard the villagers. He said the children need weapons to prevent them from being kidnapped by gangs.
He added that many children in the area only attend primary school as they are too scared to leave their communities to attend secondary school.
Luna said he hopes Governor Hector Astudillo Flores visits the area to meet the 24 widows and 66 children left as orphans as a result of the murders in the area in the last year.
The government of the state told local media “we are calling the community police to respect, according to the law, the human rights of the children”.
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Story By: Ana Lacasa, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News
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