A volunteer police force in rural Mexico that says it has been overwhelmed by local kidnappings has recruited schoolchildren as young as 12 to join its ranks, the latest sign of how some parts of the country are struggling to cope with organized crime. Armed with rifles and sticks, and with their faces covered, boys and girls paraded around the local sports field this week before joining a patrol in Ayahualtempa, a mountain village in the southwestern state of Guerrero. Violence has recently escalated in Guerrero, one of the poorest states in Mexico.

ACAPULCO, Mexico (Reuters) - A volunteer police force in rural Mexico that says it has been overwhelmed by local kidnappings has recruited schoolchildren as young as 12 to join its ranks, the latest sign of how some parts of the country are struggling to cope with organized crime.

Armed with rifles and sticks, and with their faces covered, boys and girls paraded around the local sports field this week before joining a patrol in Ayahualtempa, a mountain village in the southwestern state of Guerrero.

“We can’t study because of lawlessness,” one recruited teenager told the Milenio television channel. The boy explained how he had learned to shoot a gun after a handful of lessons.

  • Audrey0nne@leminal.spaceEnglish
    17·
    10 months ago

    The pictures are sobering. Knowing that you will likely die ugly but proceeding due course is a look that masks can’t hide.