Brigida Chora Lopez, 83, grandmother of Alexander Mora Venancio, in her house in El Pericon, in Mexico’s Guerrero State. Mr. Mora’s remains have thus far been the only ones officially identified from a group of 43 students who disappeared from a rural teachers’ college last September.”
CHILPANCINGO, Mexico — A former cattle trader juggles two cellphones to direct truckloads of armed volunteers who have replaced the meager police forces across a swath of small towns.
A potential mayoral candidate plans to campaign almost entirely from his apartment, risking little of the usual glad-handing with voters on the street, because he fears for his life.
Protesters rattle the gates of military bases and have evicted mayors from about half the state’s town halls.
As election season begins in Guerrero, what has been at best a tenuous hold on order in Mexico’s most violent state is fast disintegrating.
After the disappearance of 43 students from a rural teachers’ college last September — believed to be the victims of an alliance among drug gangs, local politicians and the municipal police — activist groups have sworn to disrupt the June elections in the name of the missing students.
“The no-election movement could gather strength,” said Juan Angulo Osorio, the editor of El Sur, a Guerrero newspaper. “It’s seen as the only way to punish the politicians.”
Mexico City
FEDERAL DISTRICT
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In rural areas, many people have lost all faith in the elected authorities.
Two years ago, community police forces, which first developed in indigenous villages in the 1990s, began to multiply. Armed with shotguns, volunteers succeeded in running criminal gangs out of small towns and won the loyalty of many residents who distrust the police and the military.
In Tecoanapa, the local militia found a safe house at the edge of town with signs of torture and makeshift graves in the underbrush.
“All of Guerrero has become a clandestine graveyard,” said Ernesto Gallardo, a commander of the community police forces.
Despite an influx of federal police officers into Guerrero since the students disappeared, new militias continue to form, joining one or another of several rival alliances.
Mr. Gallardo, a man who carried his self-appointed authority with ease, argued that the community police do not intend to supplant the government. But there seemed to be little other sign of authority.
Volunteers made rounds on pickup trucks around the well-tended town, often stopping to hear people’s concerns. They staffed road checkpoints and stood guard when school let out.
“When the government does not do its job, we will take its place,” he said.
