Insumisión: Community Self-Defense Against Narcos and the State

community-police-tixtla-guerrero

Originally published to It’s Going Down
By Scott Campbell

As those of us in the U.S. come together to plan for the incoming Trump regime, hopefully we can find some inspiration and affinity with the ongoing resistance happening in Mexico. After this summer’s teachers’ strike and popular mobilizations collapsed, communities and organizations in Mexico have returned to the essential but none-too-glorious work of building community self-defense and organization to maintain their gains and prepare for the next uprising that will inevitably occur.

This edition looks at communities around Mexico creating and defending autonomy, taking matters into their own hands to provide for their security from the state, organized crime and corporations. There are also updates on prisoners, community media and Ayotzinapa. This will probably be the final Insumisión of 2016. Since starting in March, we’ve put out 14 of them and appreciate that people find them useful. In 2017, we are hoping to expand our Mexico coverage and part of that will be a trip I am planning to take in a couple of months to connect face-to-face with many of the organizations you read about in these columns and to produce exciting original content. To help make that happen, please contribute to and spread the word about our fundraiser for the trip.

Continue reading

Mexico: Teacher and Community Police Leader Disappeared and Murdered

irineo-salmeron-crac-pc

Originally posted on It’s Going Down
From Desinformémonos
Translated by Scott Campbell

Chilpancingo, Guerrero | According to local press reports, the body of teacher Irineo Salmerón Dircio was found the morning of November 25. The teacher and coordinator of the Regional Coordinator of Community Authorities (CRAC-PC) was kidnapped by an armed group on November 23.

According to state press reports, one of the two bodies found in bags near the community of Amate Amarillo in the municipality of Chilapa de Álvarez belonged to the coordinator of the CRAC-PC, who had been kidnapped by an armed group the previous Wednesday.

Continue reading

Insumisión: Reclaiming Life in a Panorama of Death

IMG_1318

Originally posted on It’s Going Down
By Scott Campbell

As the violence and repression instigated, permitted and perpetrated by the Mexican State continues to grow, it can become overwhelming to summarize it in these pages in a way that does justice to the victims and survivors of state terror and impunity. Yet as the grim tallies multiply and impact more and more lives, so does the clarity that what the state offers even in its best moments is no solution at all, and from that point resistance flourishes. The sparks of refusal and defiance despite the odds ignite around the country, making meaning out of that which seems so senseless, breathing reclaimed life into a panorama of death. As América del Valle of Atenco said earlier this month, “Even with everything they did to us, we don’t come here today as martyrs. We don’t come to cry…We’ve come here to say NO!” Lxs insumxs. Let’s see what they’ve been up to over the past two weeks.

Continue reading