Mexico has a long history of community policing, but in more recent years a movement has emerged that focuses less on administering local justice than on protecting communities from outside forces. In 2011, the citizens of the town of Cheran, Michoacán rose up against criminals they claimed were illegally logging their forest. In addition to stopping the logging projects, the so-called “guardabosques” (“forest guards”) essentially drove out and replaced Cheran’s politicians and police…

Read this piece in its entirety at Southern Pulse.