ACAPULCO, Mexico (AP) — Hundreds of armed vigilantes have taken control of a town on a major highway in the Pacific coast state of Guerrero, arresting local police officers and searching homes after a vigilante leader was killed. Several opened fire on a car of Mexican tourists headed to the beach for Easter week.
Members of the
area's self-described "community police" say more than 1,500 members of
the force were stopping traffic Wednesday at improvised checkpoints in
the town of Tierra Colorado, which sits the highway connecting Mexico
City to Acapulco. They arrested 12 police and the former director of
public security in the town after a leader of the state's vigilante
movement was slain on Monday.
A tourist
heading to the beach with relatives was slightly wounded Tuesday after
they refused to stop at a roadblock and vigilantes fired shots at the
car, officials said.
The vigilantes
accuse the ex-security director of participating in the killing of
vigilante leader Guadalupe Quinones Carbajal, 28, on behalf of local
organized crime groups and dumping his body in a nearby town on Monday.
They reported seizing several high-powered rifles from his car, and
vigilantes were seen toting a number of sophisticated assault rifles on
Wednesday, although it was not clear if all had been taken from the
ex-security director's car.
"We have
besieged the municipality, because here criminals operate with impunity
in 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," said Bruno
Placido Valerio, a spokesman for the vigilante group.
Placido said
vigilantes had searched a number of homes in the town and seized drugs
from some. They turned over the ex-security director and police officers
to state prosecutors, who agreed to investigate their alleged ties to
organized crime.
The growing
movement of "self-defense" vigilante groups has seen masked townspeople
throw up checkpoints in several parts of southern and western Mexico,
stopping passing motorists to search for weapons or people whose names
are on hand-written lists of "suspects" wanted for crimes like theft and
extortion.
The vigilantes
have opened fire before on motorists who refused to stop, slightly
wounding a pair of tourists from Mexico City visiting a local beach in
early February.
The groups say
they are fighting violence, kidnappings and extortions carried out by
drug cartels, but concerns have surfaced that the vigilantes may be
violating the law, the human rights of people they detain, or even
cooperating with criminals in some cases.
Sensitive over their lack of ability to enforce public safety in rural areas, official have largely tolerated vigilante groups.
