Story By: Ana Lacasa, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: CEN

Video Credit: CEN

This footage shows the cute kids who survived a drug cartel massacre – that killed 12 people – training in guerrilla warfare with cops to fight the gang if they return.

The youngsters, reportedly aged between seven and ten years old, say they are joining the Regional Coordinator of Community Authorities of the Founders People (CRAC-PF), a community police force, in order to help them fight the ‘Los Ardillos’ drug cartel in the community of Rincon de Chautla, in the municipality of Chilapa, in the south-western Mexican state of Guerrero.

The children say they survived an armed confrontation in Rincon de Chautla in January this year and are reportedly trained in guerrilla warfare. 

Pictures Credit: CEN

Local media report 12 people were killed and two injured when Los Ardillos gang members opened fire on the community police on 27th January.

In the video, a found boy can be seen leading the group through a series of army-style drills, with them using sticks to act as rifles.

The group of eight children practice aiming their ‘weapons’ and dropping into the prone position.

The CRAC-PF was created in 1994 as a group of civilians working to stop the wave of violence devastating the area. It was set up as a protection force for local indigenous communities and was granted a regulatory framework by the Government of Guerrero to protect indigenous communities’ rights to self-determination and to resolve internal conflicts. 

Local media report they are often in armed conflict with criminal gangs working in the area and they organised themselves to fight against the two drug cartels currently vying for territory in the region, Los Ardillos and Los Rojos.

The children are reportedly part of the indigenous Nahuas community and local media state that on 4th May, councillors Jose Lucio Bartolo Faustino and Modesto Verales Sebastian, who promoted indigenous rights in the area, were murdered in the municipality of Chilapa de Alvarez.

One of the youngsters in the clip said: “They kill one community police officer and we will go for 10 of their hitmen. We were attacked, the boys and girl here today are survivors of that bloody attack. We keep on fighting because we know they are going to come back and attack our community police.”

They also requested the President of the country Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to send the national guard to the area and asked for the support of the National Commission of Human Rights, the Supreme Court and the Mexican Army.

The Commission of Defence of Human Rights of the state and the General Secretary of the Government of Guerrero met with the councillors of the community police force in order to ask them not to use children as cops as they are risking their physical and emotional integrity.