EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – Authorities in Guerrero, Mexico, have opened a criminal investigation on a town that provided firearms and paramilitary training to 20 underage boys and girls.
Children as young as 12 last week received guns to defend the town of Ayahualtempa from continuous abductions and harassment at the hands of drug cartels operating in the mountains of Guerrero, according to multiple Mexican news reports.
“The Attorney General’s Office initiated an investigation for the crime of corruption of minors, after learning that a group identified as ‘Community Police’ armed 20 boys and girls,” the Guerrero AG said in a statement. “This office will hold the responsible parties accountable in order to guarantee the physical, psychological and emotional well-being of the minors.”
Videos shared on social media show the children participating in military formations near the town square, holding rifles, wearing masks and olive-green T-shirts.
A Mexican news portal interviewed two of the underage volunteer community police members. A reporter asked the child soldier if he was still going to school.
“Study? Only when we have time. Because of the insecurity of the government, we cannot study,” the unidentified minor said. Asked what training he received, the child answered: “To shoot, take position, confront criminals.”
Another child said he wanted the government to “do its job” so he wouldn’t have to. In the background, an adult coordinator was heard telling a crowd “They will not humiliate us. We will not bend our knee. We will stay. We will defend our rights.”
Residents told reporters recent abductions linked to the Ardillos gang triggered the expansion of the community police. Town residents also have reported run-ins with La Familia Michoacana transnational criminal organization and Los Tlacos regional gang.
But the Guerrero AG’s Office says a joint police-army base operates near the town, providing safety and protection to the residents. “Arming children is not an adequate strategy. I think the people behind that strategy are wrong. We will file the appropriate complaints and take the appropriate actions,” Ludwig Marcial Reynoso, Guerrero state secretary of government, told reporters this month.
This is not the first time Ayahualtempa recruits children for its volunteer community police. In 2021, the Coordinadora Regional de Autoridades Comuniatarias de los Pueblos Fundadores (CRAC-PF), showed off a crop of child soldiers in an effort to get the Mexican government to fight organized criminals in the region.
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