Guerrero: Social insurrection in Olinalá against organized crime

Guerrero: Social insurrection in Olinalá against organized crime
SIPAZ blog – International Service for Peace – 14 November, 2012

Residents of Olinalá observe one of the entrances to the municipal center. Photo @Lenin Ocampo

On 31 October, more than 700 residents of Olinalá, some of them armed with rifles, installed barricades in the five access-points to the municipal center so as to impede the passage of organized crime. After several violent acts in the past few days for which organized crime has been responsible, the residents established a supervision commission in Olinalá, saying that they saw themselves as obligated to take justice into their own hands, given the extortion, disappearances, and murders committed by organized crime in this municipality of the Mountain Region of Guerrero, without any appropriate response from authorities. On 27 October, bothered by lack of security, hundreds of residents of the same municipality took city hall for the entirety of the day and detained a presumed kidnapper from a gang that in recent days had assaulted the region with kidnappings and murders.

On 6 November, members of the Regional Coordination of Communal Authorities (CRAC-Communal Polices) from San Luis Acatlán affirmed that, while the presence of Navy and Army units in Olinalá could be positive, “when the federal forces go, the problems will continue.” They emphasized that the state and federal governments have failed to observe their obligation to provide security to the municipalities of the Mountain. That same day, the state Congress called on Governor Ángel Aguirre Rivero to open dialogue with the residents of Olinalá toward providing assurances of security for the population. …more