Mexico’s traditional and Indigenous community police come under fire from drug cartels

Associated Press

TANGAMANDAPIO, Mexico (AP) — Mexico’s traditional and Indigenous community police forces are coming under increasingly deadly fire from drug cartels. The chief prosecutor in the western state of Michoacan confirmed Monday that assailants shot to death seven members of the community police force in the town of Coahuayana (koh-why-YAH-nah) over the weekend. He said the attack appears to be related to battles by drug cartels to control the coastal area, a main route for landing seaborne shipments of cocaine. The community guardians were killed just days after seven members of an Indigenous community guard were kidnapped, apparently by cartel gunmen, in another Michoacan town but were later freed.