THE WORLD IS REALLY BECOMING MORE DANGEROUS

A human rights group on Thursday slammed an armed vigilante group's training of children to use guns in a violent region of Mexico after images of the armed minors as young as five years of age sparked widespread consternation.

The video footage and photos of small children bearing rifles in the southwestern state of Guerrero were the latest shock to a country that has become increasingly accustomed to troubling news after two years of record levels of violence.

One day after the group revealed that it was using children as young as six as 'recruits' for armed defense patrols, Mexico's president said Thursday that drug cartels too are recruiting ever-younger kids.

The whole issue has sparked a debate in Mexico over the use of children in armed confrontations, with rights groups saying the practice threatens not only kids' safety, but their mental health.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said that because social programs are giving more youths opportunities to study or work, drug cartels are having trouble finding gunmen, leading them to recruit children.

'The gangs are having trouble getting hit men, so they are recruiting more children and young people, because there is competition,' López Obrador said.

'The thing is, the social programs are giving youths more options, and that is leading them (gangs) to get desperate, and they are looking to reinforce themselves with kids'.

López Obrador said 'the key is to attack the root causes, to stop the breakdown of families, to strengthen values and material welfare, to give attention to young people' to avoid them being recruited.

The issue came to a head Wednesday, when a vigilante group in southern Mexico publicly displayed a troop of 19 armed, masked children who had been recruited to act as 'community police'.

The children appeared to range in age from about 5 to 15, and they carried shotguns and rifles. Some of the very youngest carried sticks instead of guns.

They performed rifle drills on a road in the township of Alcozacán in southern Guerrero state.

In a nearby town, a local drug gang had killed 10 men and burned most of their bodies, and vigilante organizers said the kids were needed to guard their villages against the drug gang.

The recruits were also paraded through the Alcozacan community where roads have been blocked after the ten members of the band 'Sensacion' were murdered.

Prosecutor Jorge Zuriel de los Santos Barrila alleged the musicians had been attacked by a criminal gang called 'Los Ardillos' whilst travelling in two vans to Alcozacan.

Reports state when the band saw they were being attacked they sped up but one van was hit by a grenade, killing five men, while the other band members had their throats slit.

A 15-year-old boy was among the victims.

The head of the Guerrero state human rights office forcefully condemned the vigilantes, saying they were exposing the children to danger.

'We categorically reject the involvement of minors in security roles that put their physical safety, their lives and their development at risk,'the office said in a statement.

But the prison and youth advocacy group Reinserta Un Mexicano A.C. said the Guerrero state government's position is irresponsible because authorities there 'have been systematically negligent in guaranteeing minimal conditions of welfare for these communities and in defending the rights of children' in the conflict-torn area.

Bernardino Sanchez Luna, one of the leaders of the community police, told local media 'they have seen the government has no skill or interest in defending indigenous people from criminal gangs. '

What is this world turning to?

At 5years old I was just contented with stealing coins from my mom's purse and resmoking the stubs of my dad's cigarettes.

But imagine this?

Endtime

Firstly it's Wrong and it's Child Right Abuse But What are all the human rights and NGOs and other heavy power and lifters in the world doing to help fight this cartels destroying Mexico...

We are here judging them for engaging those kids not to be mole for the drug cartels... 70% of kids in Mexico below 10 are directly and indirectly involved in Drug Sale....rather than helping combat it, the world is watching while America is paying Hero..

Using kids is totally wrong but engaging them not to become drug lords is great

This is a blatant violation of the children! This is an example of country where human life is valueless. Those people doing this to the children know very well that it is either the children kill or be killed.

Amotekun Mexico Command ;DAmotekun Mexico Command

People that will later be recruited as SICARIOS for the cartels . Money is powerful

sorry to say, but the vigilante group recruiting them is the lesser evil here. it's a pity their innocence had to be taken away this early

Ebuka478:
sorry to say, but the vigilante group recruiting them is the lesser evil here. it's a pity their innocence had to be taken away this early

I swear.. Seems all the people above don't know what is actually happening up there in mexico

Ebuka478:
sorry to say, but the vigilante group recruiting them is the lesser evil here. it's a pity their innocence had to be taken away this early

its a sad situation...