Armed vigilantes numbering in the hundreds have taken over a Mexican town in the Pacific coastal state of Guerrero. The town is located along a major highway.
Several of the vigilantes opened fire on a car of tourists after they refused to stop at a roadblock, one of the tourists was wounded. They were headed for an Easter holiday week at the beach.
The vigilantes have also arrested 12 local police officers and the former director of public security in the town after a leader of the vigilante movement was killed on Monday. They also began searching homes and seizing drugs from some of them.
The vigilantes have accused the former security director of participating in the killing of Guadalupe Quinones Carbajal, 28, the leader of the group and the dumping of his body in a nearby town. They believe Carbajal was killed at the behest of local organized crime groups.
"We have besieged the municipality, because here criminals operate with impunity in broad daylight, in view of municipal authorities," said Bruno Placido Valerio, a spokesman for the vigilante group. "We have detained the director of public security because he is involved with criminals and he knows who killed our commander."
According to the vigilantes, several high-powered rifles were seized from the former security director's car. They were then seen carrying sophisticated assault rifles on Wednesday, though it is unclear if all the weapons came from the former security director's car.
Placido said that the group had turned over the former security director and police officers to state prosecutors, who have agreed to investigate the allegations about ties to organized crime.
Residents describe the area police as "community police." Over 1,500 members of the police force were involved with improvised checkpoints on Wednesday, where they were stopping traffic in the town of Tierra Colorado. The town is along the highway that connects Mexico City to Acapulco.
A movement of vigilante groups had been spreading through several parts of southern and western Mexico, resulting in thrown up checkpoints, which are stopping passing cars to search for weapons and people named on hand-written lists of "suspects" that are wanted for crimes such as theft and extortion.
The groups claim to be fighting violence, including kidnapping, and extortions carried out by drug cartels, though they may be violating the law and human rights of the people they are detaining, as well as possibly cooperating with criminals.
The groups are tolerated because residents are aware of their inability to enforce public safety in rural areas.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
