Government Moves Against Vigilante Leadership in State of Guerrero Dudley Althaus - InSight Crime
go to original September 20, 2013

Naturalized US citizen and aspiring community activist Nestora Salgado sits in a Mexican federal prison, snared by the government's push-back against the armed self-defense movement sweeping the country's southern Pacific coast.

On August 21, marines and state police arrested the commander of the volunteer police force in Olinala, an artisan and ranching town tucked deep into the mountains of Guerrero state. She is charged with kidnapping related to the detentions by her officers of four local teenage girls accused of selling drugs and of a town politician they claim stole a cow from a murdered farmer.

If convicted, Salgado, 41 years old and a mother of three, could spend decades in prison.

Both her critics and supporters say the longtime Seattle resident ran afoul of state and federal officials concerned that the vigilante movement is both swirling out of control and politically challenging the powers that be.

"What I can't permit as governor is that they continue with these kinds of practices," Guerrero Governor Angel Aguirre told a Mexico City radio interviewer early this month, referring to Salgado and the community police movement in general. "We aren't going to live by the law of the jungle."

Read the rest at InSight Crime

We invite you to add your charity or supporting organizations' news stories and coming events to PVAngels so we can share them with the world. Do it now!