Dudley Althaus: Mexico's Vigilante Militia Moms Fight Crime and the Law Dudley Althaus - GlobalPost
go to original September 30, 2013

Palabras de Nestora en Buenavista (armagedonmaya)

OLINALA, Mexico — After decades making another life in the United States, Nestora Salgado found herself back home in southern Mexico's mountains, leading scores of mostly male volunteer police against gangsters and officials alike.

Salgado, 42, was elected commander this spring of the community police in Olinala (oh-lee-nah-LAH), an artisan and cattle town buried deep in the Pacific coast range of Guerrero state.

She's one of many women joining vigilante militias this year as Mexico’s drug war grinds on, in nearly seven years claiming more than 70,000 lives and “disappearing” many thousands more. Just like their beleaguered brothers, husbands and sons, women across this region are arming themselves with low-caliber weapons and popular ire against criminal abuse and official inaction.

But Salgado now occupies a federal prison cell in a distant state, following her arrest by soldiers and state police on Aug. 21. She's charged with the kidnapping of four teenage girls detained by her officers for selling drugs and of a local official accused of stealing a murdered peasant's cow.

If convicted, Salgado could face decades in prison.

Read the rest at GlobalPost

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