Vigilantes Overtake Mexican Town
Tierra Colorada, a small Mexican town on the highway between Mexico City and Acapulco, has been overtaken by hundreds of armed vigilantes.
Under the name of policia comunitaria, community police, the group has arrested 12 police officers and Tierra Colorada’s former director of public security.
The group in town took arms after a leader in the state’s vigilante movement, Guadalupe Quinones Carbajal, was assassinated. The Associated Press reports the group is accusing the ex-security director of participating in the killing of Carbajal on behalf of local organized crime groups.
A spokesperson for the group explained their motivation on Wednesday:
“We have besieged the municipality, because here criminals operate with impunity on broad daylight, in the view of municipal authorities. We have detained the director of public security because he is involved with this criminals and he knows who killed our commander.”
Although such groups seek to be a militant response to the violent cartels and corrupt police forces in their state, their tactics are criticized as inflicting similar terror in their community.
When one tourist heading to the beach during the Easter holiday refused to stop at the checkpoint, the vigilantes fired at his car. They have also conducted home searches in the town.
