Anniversary of the Communal Police, October 2011. Photo @Sipaz
On 29 August, Máximo Tranquilino Santiago, member of the Regional Coordination of Communal Authorities (CRAC), was released “for lack of evidence,” after having been detained for more than 24 hours by agents of the Ministerial Investigative Police (PIM) on the charge of kidnapping. Also released were the four official functionaries that the CRAC had arrested for having violated law 701, which in article 37 recognizes CRAC in its legal actions. The CRAC called for a micro-regional assembly on 29 August, which was converted into a popular judgment in which the communal authorities succeeded in having the employees of the State Attorney General’s Office (PGJE) who had been held since 28 August recognize that they had been mistaken in their detention of a leader because they did not know of the law that was passed last year.
Following the arrest of the regional representative of the CRAC, the territory that has Communal Police in Guerrero declared itself on alert, mobilizing 800 police “for whatever may happen,” said Valentín Hernández, advisor and lawyer for CRAC. The ministerial police of San Luis Acatlán on 28 August detained Máximo Tranquilino Santiago, member and coordinator of the House for Justice of the CRAC, accused of kidnapping, while he was leaving his home in the community of Yoloxóchitl en route to his office in San Luis Acatlán. Moments later, the regional assembly, as a maximal authority of the people, ordered the communal police to detain the judge of the prison, the Public Minister of San Luis Acatlán, and three other officials.
For more information (in Spanish):
Libera la CRAC a servidores tras la libertad a Tranquilino (La Jornada de Guerero, 30 de agosto de 2012)
Detiene la Policía Comunitaria a cuatro funcionarios de la PGJE (La Jornada de Guerrero, 29 de agosto de 2012)
Arrestan a coordinador de la CRAC-PC; Policía Comunitaria detiene a Juez y agentes por incumplir acuerdos en materia de justicia (Cencos, 29 de agosto de 2012)
Se movilizan 800 policías comunitarios en Guerrero (Desinformemonos, agosto de 2012)
Policía Comunitaria denuncia detención arbitraria de uno de sus miembros (Centro Prodh, 29 de agosto de 2012)
For more information from SIPAZ (in English):
Guerrero: denunciations and declarations of the CRAC and CECOP (12 March 2012)
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