Mexico's Vigilantes

Over the past few years, drug-related violence in Mexico has driven local citizens to the breaking point. Fed up with the lack of security provided by the police, and with intimidation and attacks from members of various drug cartels and criminal gangs, people have started their own self-defense groups. Armed groups of ordinary citizens have set up security checkpoints, disarmed and chased away police they considered ineffective, and even organized ambitious manhunts to apprehend or kill suspected criminal bosses. While the vigilante groups have had some success, the Mexican government is now trying to reign in the lawless aspects by integrating these citizens into a new police group called the Force Rural State -- formally providing them with weapons, uniforms, and training. While some of the vigilantes are cooperating, others insist they won't lay down their own guns until top leaders of The Knights Templar (Los Templarios) drug cartel are arrested.

Read more
Hints: View this page full screen. Skip to the next and previous photo by typing j/k or ←/→.

Most Recent

  • John Ricky / Anadolu / Getty

    Photos of the Week: Wheelbarrow Race, Count Binface, Orange Skies

    A volcanic eruption in Indonesia, a tilting tower in Taiwan, the Tokyo Rainbow Pride Parade in Japan, protests opposing Israel’s attacks on Gaza in the United States, and much more

  • Lukasz Nowak1 / Getty

    Chile’s Amazing National Parks

    Images of several of Chile’s national parks, encompassing a wide variety of environments

  • Juan Carlos Vindas / Getty

    For Earth Day, a Photo Appreciation of Birds

    A handful of images of the tens of billions of individual animals divided among some 10,000 species, inhabiting nearly every environment on Earth

  • AFP / Getty

    Photos of the Week: Burning Bull, Blue Forest, Olympic Flame

    Eid al-Fitr prayers in India, trophy winners at the Boston Marathon, the burning of a historic building in Denmark, a joyous water festival in Thailand, and much more