Civilians that were under siege by a Mexican cartel fight back with AK-47s and grenades | PBS News
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Megan Janetsky, Associated Press
Megan Janetsky, Associated Press
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Civilians that were under siege by a Mexican cartel fight back with AK-47s and grenades
World
Mar 20, 2026 12:06 PM EDT
GUAJES DE AYALA, Mexico (AP) — Jesús Domínguez pushes through thick brush lining a rugged mountainside with an AK-47 slung over his shoulder and a grenade fastened to his leather belt.
He marches alongside a pack of camouflage-clad men patrolling the rural stretches of Mexico against one of the country's most powerful drug cartels.
READ MORE: Many in Mexico fear more violence after army kills cartel leader 'El Mencho'
Armed with military-grade weapons smuggled from the U.S., the 50-man force is one of dozens of "autodefensa," or "self-defense," groups that have emerged over the past decade in Mexico to fight increasingly sophisticated cartels in areas far out of the reach of security forces.
"The government doesn't care about us, and it's impossible for our arms to compete with (the cartel's)," said Domínguez, 34, from a watch post overlooking the mountains of Guerrero state. "They come at you with a ton of force, so you need to respond with force…If you don't, they'll overwhelm you."
The vigilantes in Guajes de Ayala join a volatile landscape of warring armed groups – from cartels with tentacles across Latin America to local mafias – in regions like Guerrero ravaged by splintering cartels for decades. It's a tangle Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum will have to unravel under pressure from the Trump administration and fears of more violence following the killing of Mexico's most powerful drug lord.
'We don't want to be slaves'
The vigilante group was formed in 2020 when the cartel La Nueva Familia Michoacana tried to take control of seven communities buried deep in the mountains along a strategic throughway connecting cartels to the port city of Acapulco, where drugs and other illegal goods flow.
Residents said the cartel, designated a foreign terrorist organization last year by the Trump administration, started illegally logging in their lands and tried to force residents to join fights against rival gangs.
READ MORE: Mexico sends 37 drug cartel members to U.S. in latest offer to Trump administration
In the absence of Mexican military and police forces, locals armed themselves. Sporadic fire fights stretched on for nearly a year. Residents fled on foot, walking hours through far-off mountains with little more than the clothes on their backs. Communities of 1,600 people dwindled to just 400.
After a pause in the conflict, the vigilantes rearmed in October when the Nueva Familia Michoacana began to again push into their territory, setting up fentanyl labs and monitoring them with drones, said the group's leader, Javier Hernández.
Now, the men guard their towns from mountain watch posts and surveil 100 cartel gunmen camped out a few miles (kilometers) away using their own drones.
"We don't want to be part of their ranks and we don't want to leave our lands," Hernández said. "We don't want to be slaves to any cartel."
'They corner you'
Conflict is more entrenched in Guerrero than in most Mexican states, with a history of militancy dating back to guerrilla movements in the 1960s. The landscape has grown increasingly complex as cartels have fractured into rival factions creating a much different situation than in the past when one cartel held monolithic control over a region. According to a 2025 DEA report, five cartels operate here. So do various local gangs and vigilante groups, many of which are allied with the larger cartels.
"You have a kaleidoscope of armed groups," said Mónica Serrano, a professor at the Colegio de Mexico studying violence in Guerrero. "It's one of the most vexing challenges facing the country and is at the root of the violence."
READ MORE: What to know about the Mexican army's killing of the powerful cartel leader 'El Mencho'
Self-defense forces took off in Michoacan and Guerrero around 2013. Like the group in Guajes de Ayala, they were formed as a desperate attempt to avoid being caught in the crossfire of warring cartels.
But in places where criminal groups are more present than law enforcement, nearly every vigilante movement that has emerged in recent history has either been coopted by rival cartels or massacred. Mexico's government has been split about whether it should talk to vigilantes or treat them as criminals.
In some cases, groups became cartel paramilitary forces themselves, flush with money and terrorizing the communities they claimed to protect. In others, cartels armed local citizens to help fight...