Mexico High School Students Take Up Arms After Village Kidnappings – Reuters

By Javier Verdin and Diego Oré

ACAPULCO, Mexico – A volunteer police group in rural Mexico, grappling with a surge in local kidnappings, has begun recruiting schoolchildren as young as 12 to bolster their ranks. This development highlights the ongoing struggle in certain areas of the country to combat organized crime.

Armed with rifles and sticks, and with their identities obscured, these young boys and girls paraded around a local sports field this week before joining a patrol in Ayahualtempa, a mountainous village in Guerrero state.

"We can’t study because of lawlessness," shared one teenager who had been recruited. He recounted how he picked up shooting skills after just a few lessons.

Violence has surged in Guerrero, one of Mexico’s poorest regions. Reports indicate that a drone attack attributed to the La Familia Michoacana drug cartel claimed approximately 30 lives earlier this January.

In Ayahualtempa, the local prosecutor’s office reported that four members of a family have been missing since they were abducted on Friday.

The minors are augmenting the volunteer police force and will do their utmost to protect the village of around 700 residents, as adults focus on searching for the missing individuals, according to Antonio Toribio, a local official.

"We’re not going to allow them to kidnap us any more, or for people to keep disappearing," Toribio asserted.

This is not the first instance of minors being armed in Guerrero, where authorities have faced significant challenges in countering powerful drug trafficking organizations.