El Paraíso, Ayulta de los Libres is an isolated community accessible only by bumpy dirt roads, high in the mountains of Guerrero. There are less than 600 inhabitants, all of which are indigenous Mixteco, of which 43% have electricity and whose primary economy is farming beans and corn. They call their language sa'an davi, and in their language they call themselves ‘people of the rain’.
One of Mexico’s poorest states, Guerrero is home to what was once the country’s poshest resort. Acapulco. The cartel that once dominated Acapulco and the rest of the state fractured years ago, leaving smaller criminal groups to violently vie for power. Starting around 1994 more than a dozen gangs began to use the mountains throughout Guerrero as their strongholds and battleground, bringing with them violence, assaults, and sexual abuse of women throughout the region. Corrupt government authorities have enabled the cartel violence, and few perpetrators have been imprisoned for the executions, rapes and kidnappings by organized crime.
Born from the intolerability of this wave of violence, and the long neglect of a government that fails to serve justice, was a unique community police force that formally organized in 1995. The CRAC (an acronym that translates to Regional Coordinator of Community Authorities) operates with the objective to watch over the well-being of the community. It has a presence in 56 communities in Guerrero and in its years of existence, has succeeded in making these communities the safest areas in the state. Each officer that joins the Community Police is community elected and does not receive money nor any other personal benefit from their community service. At night, after working all day in the fields, they patrol the rugged mountains around their village with their rifles and a solar charged radio.
Martin Morales Matarios…
is the Second Commander of the Community Police in El Paraíso, municipality of Ayutla de los Libres, in the state of Guerrero, México. He was elected by his town to serve and protect the people on a volunteer basis. During the day he works the land farming primarily corn and beans. At the end of the day he meets the rest of the community police to patrol the surrounding mountains throughout the night.
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Community police stand vigil outside of the town of El Paraiso, Municipio Ayutla de los Libres, Guerrero, Mexico. The force is this small indigenous Mixteco community is made up of 12 community members elected to the post. During the day they are primarily farmers and at night are tasked with patrolling and protecting the community from drug traffickers. In this largely unnelectrified community, the police use solar panels to charge the radios they use on their nightly patrols.
The force was started in 1995 in response to the wave of violence and crime against indigenous communities in the state of Guerrero as the Narco trade took strongholds in the area. While recent years have been relatively safe and quiet, just shortly after the photo was taken on the 13th of April, 2019 one of the leaders of the CRAC-Policia Comunitaria was murdered nearby in San Luis Acatlán.