Mexicans fed up form citizen police groups

Fed up with police corruption and drug gang violence, a number of communities in the southern Mexico state of Guerrero and neighboring areas have formed citizen police groups.

Effectively vigilante outfits with no allegiance — and often outright hostility — to elected authorities, they are grassroots attempts by locals to rein in lawlessness in some of the areas most wracked by killings, kidnappings, extortion and other malfeasance.

For these citizen cops, being on duty can mean manning an impromptu roadblock to search vehicles for contraband, monitoring bars for nefarious activities or watching over rudimentary police stations complete with jail cells.

Patrolling on foot or in the back of a pickup truck, they are often armed with just rifles — a far cry from the high-caliber weapons used by Mexico's drug cartels, police and military.

It can be a deadly job. Daniel Julio Julio, a 22-year-old member of one militia, was ambushed and killed in the Guerrero village of Huamuchapa.

Civilians die at the vigilantes' hands as well. Alexis Estrada Asencio, a 17-year-old bull-riding enthusiast, and five other citizens were killed in La Concepcion on Jan. 7 in a confused gunfight between vigilante forces and other townsfolk over a dispute of a proposed hydro-electric dam near Acapulco. 

In this Feb. 5, 2018 photo, family members of civilians allegedly killed by “community police”, ride home holding photographs of their deceased loved ones, in La Concepcion, in the Mexican state of Guerrero. The women were returning from meeting with reporters at the town council building where they say their relatives were killed in a confrontation between vigilante forces and other townsfolk. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

In this Feb. 8, 2018 photo, Maribel Julio Meneses is comforted by relatives during the wake for her son Daniel Julio Julio, a "community police" vigilante who was ambushed and killed in the village of Huamuchapa, near Tecoanapa, in the Mexican state of Guerrero state. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

In this Feb. 5, 2018 photo, a family member adjusts an altar set up in honor of Alexis Estrada Asencio, in La Concepcion, in the Mexican state of Guerrero. Asencio, a 17-year-old bull-riding enthusiast, was allegedly killed in January along with five other civilians by members of the "community police" vigilante force. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

In this Feb. 8, 2018 photo, Maribel Julio Meneses weeps over the body of her son Daniel Julio Julio, a "community police" vigilante who was ambushed and killed in the village of Huamuchapa, near Tecoanapa, in the Mexican state of Guerrero. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

In this Feb. 7, 2018 photo, "community police" vigilante Rene Zeferino rides in the back of a pickup as his unit patrols the streets of Ayutla de los Libres, in the Mexican state of Guerrero. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

In this Feb. 8, 2018 photo, a "community police" vigilante counts rifle bullets at his base, in Buenavista de la Salud, in the Mexican state of Guerrero. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

In this Feb. 6, 2018 photo, handcuffed prisoners are escorted back to their cell at the "community police" station in Xaltianguis, in the Mexican state of Guerrero. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

In this Feb. 8, 2018 photo, a "community police" vigilante sits on guard with his weapon and radio outside the vigilante force's base in Buenavista de la Salud, in the Mexican state of Guerrero. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

In this Feb. 4, 2018 photo, a young man being held by the "community police" vigilante force sits in an abandoned building turned into a makeshift cell for non-violent offenders, alongside bottles of river water used for bathing, in Ayutla de los Libres, in the Mexican state of Guerrero. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

In this Feb. 4, 2018 photo, children walk past a “community police” vigilante at the force's base, in Ayutla de los Libres, in the Mexican state of Guerrero. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

In this Feb. 6, 2018 photo, prisoner Marcelo Ramirez Bolanos cries as he is interrogated about his alleged crimes of kidnapping and robbery, by a member of the “community police” vigilantes in Xaltianguis, in the Mexican state of Guerrero. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

In this Feb. 6 2018 photo, a makeshift memorial of crosses and flowers adorn the site where four members of a "community police” vigilante force died when their car was ambushed and burned, near Rincon de la Via in the Mexican state of Guerrero. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

In this Feb. 6, 2018 photo, a baby peers up at a “community police” vigilante, in Xaltianguis, in the Mexican state of Guerrero. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

In this Feb. 4, 2018 photo, “community police” vigilantes inspect a bar in Ayutla de los Libres, in the Mexican state of Guerrero. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

In this Feb. 8, 2018 photo, "community police" are silohoiuteed against an evening sky as they stand guard on the roof of the vigilantes force's base in Buenavista de la Salud, in the Mexican state of Guerrero. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

In this Feb. 9, 2018 photo, “community police” vigilantes gather around a campfire just after dawn as they pass a cold night on duty outside their base in Buenavista de la Salud, in the Mexican state of Guerrero. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

---

Text from the AP news story, Clash of local officials, vigilantes leaves 11 dead by Mark Stevenson.

Photos by Rebecca Blackwell