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http://planetivy.net/mayhem/79683/rise-vigilante-mexican-drug-wars/
Amidst the chaos of the Mexican drug wars, some men seem to have taken Batman as a role model. The only difference between them and the caped crusader, however, is that these guys have guns, and they aren’t afraid to use them.
They are angry about the failure of the government, police and army to control things and keep their families safe. Needless to say, this gun-toting army of every-day-Joes-turned-masked-heroes feel they are having a positive impact on communities. Looking at the horrors that some of these small Mexican towns have endured, it’s easy to see why someone would want to take matters into their own hands. Having faced years of kidnapping, extortion and murder they are now fighting back with guns, roadside checkpoints and town patrols.
Though the federal forces have shown some support towards various militia groups, they have predominantly shown very little love towards the farmers and shop keepers who have taken to forming these vigilante squads. In Trixtla for example, a town that is gateway to the mountain drug kingdoms of the Los Rojas cartel, it is said that the cartel is in fact working in collusion with authorities.
In the nearby town of Olialá, in October 2010, the people took matters into their own hands. Led by 40-year-old Nestora Salgado, the towns folk charged into the police station following the second successive kidnapping of a local driver, after the first was found murdered a few days earlier. The group disarmed the officers and set up barricades to stop any cartel gangsters returning to the town. It was a victory for the vigilantes, and after the events of that day they started to patrol the streets. Sadly their success was short-lived. The army, navy and state police came rolling in to arrest several vigilante officers including their heroine, Salgado, who was locked up in a prison accused of kidnapping. Militia groups in the state of Guerrero have since quietened down but they’re still very much active, just working from the shadows, like all good vigilantes.
On several other occasions, however, vigilante behaviour has gone beyond your everyday patrol. In Veracruz, piles of naked bodies were found dumped in various locations, including a busy highway, on three separate occasions between September and October 2011. The bodies were members of the Zetas, a former branch of the Gulf cartel, now a fully-fledged trafficking cartel in its own right. The militia men, who came to be known as ‘the Zeta killers’, posted a video on YouTube, in which they appeared masked and terrifying looking. They took responsibility for the killings and branded it a “cleansing operation”. “We are anonymous warriors, without faces, proudly Mexican,” one of them told the camera.
story continues: http://planetivy.net/mayhem/79683/rise-vigilante-mexican-drug-wars/
Amidst the chaos of the Mexican drug wars, some men seem to have taken Batman as a role model. The only difference between them and the caped crusader, however, is that these guys have guns, and they aren’t afraid to use them.
They are angry about the failure of the government, police and army to control things and keep their families safe. Needless to say, this gun-toting army of every-day-Joes-turned-masked-heroes feel they are having a positive impact on communities. Looking at the horrors that some of these small Mexican towns have endured, it’s easy to see why someone would want to take matters into their own hands. Having faced years of kidnapping, extortion and murder they are now fighting back with guns, roadside checkpoints and town patrols.
Though the federal forces have shown some support towards various militia groups, they have predominantly shown very little love towards the farmers and shop keepers who have taken to forming these vigilante squads. In Trixtla for example, a town that is gateway to the mountain drug kingdoms of the Los Rojas cartel, it is said that the cartel is in fact working in collusion with authorities.
In the nearby town of Olialá, in October 2010, the people took matters into their own hands. Led by 40-year-old Nestora Salgado, the towns folk charged into the police station following the second successive kidnapping of a local driver, after the first was found murdered a few days earlier. The group disarmed the officers and set up barricades to stop any cartel gangsters returning to the town. It was a victory for the vigilantes, and after the events of that day they started to patrol the streets. Sadly their success was short-lived. The army, navy and state police came rolling in to arrest several vigilante officers including their heroine, Salgado, who was locked up in a prison accused of kidnapping. Militia groups in the state of Guerrero have since quietened down but they’re still very much active, just working from the shadows, like all good vigilantes.
On several other occasions, however, vigilante behaviour has gone beyond your everyday patrol. In Veracruz, piles of naked bodies were found dumped in various locations, including a busy highway, on three separate occasions between September and October 2011. The bodies were members of the Zetas, a former branch of the Gulf cartel, now a fully-fledged trafficking cartel in its own right. The militia men, who came to be known as ‘the Zeta killers’, posted a video on YouTube, in which they appeared masked and terrifying looking. They took responsibility for the killings and branded it a “cleansing operation”. “We are anonymous warriors, without faces, proudly Mexican,” one of them told the camera.
story continues: http://planetivy.net/mayhem/79683/rise-vigilante-mexican-drug-wars/
