More than 500 community police officers marched out of Ayutla de los Libres this week in one of Guerrero's most dramatic acts of civic resistance in years - a grassroots movement to liberate approximately 10 towns held under cartel control in the municipalities of Tecoanapa and Juan R. Escudero.
The column of officers, representing three community defense organizations - Cipog-ez, Crac-pf, and Upoeg - departed with a manifesto declaring their intent to take back territory where the Mexican state has effectively ceded authority to organized crime.
"Today we take our destiny into our own hands and will confront those who have terrorized and killed us for years," the coordinators declared before the march, according to La Jornada. "We will build the world we want for ourselves and for everyone."
But the operation was met with a grim reminder of the firepower criminal groups now wield. In the communities of Xalpatláhuac, Rancho Viejo, and La Estrella, the community police were attacked by drones carrying explosives - a tactic that has become increasingly common in Mexico's cartel wars. Facing this aerial threat, the officers withdrew.
The setback doesn't diminish what the march represents: a democratic uprising from below in one of Mexico's most conflicted states. Community police forces - known as autodefensas - have a long history in Guerrero and neighboring Michoacán, where citizens have organized armed self-defense groups when government security forces proved unwilling or unable to protect them.
