Reportage / Society 10.05.2020

Child Soldiers in the Fight Against Drug Gangs

In the heart of the Guerrero mountains, the Rincon De Chautla village – a handful of houses lived by Nahuatl people – is being threatened by a criminal gang, Los Ardillos.After attempting to ally with the community police, Los Ardillos…

Alfredo Bosco

Before children, women – the wives and sisters of men killed by Los Ardillos – had decided to take up arms, causing the Guerrero government great concern as they are totally unable to confront this tragedy. The response came in the form of a check point near the village, however the soldiers are too few should they be attacked by well-equipped gangs.
In Guerrero the community police forces are tolerated despite being illegal. Those living in the more remote villages will not accept being left without protection against criminal groups such as Los Ardillos in the Chilapa area, Los Rojos of Chilpancingo, the Guerrero Unidos, the Tequileros, not to mention the more powerful cartels such as that of Sinaloa and the  Familia Michoacan.

The internal war which makes Guerrero one of the most dangerous territories in the whole of Mexico stems from the opium poppy market. The districts of Centro, Tierra Caliente and Montaña are the money producing areas of the Mexican cartels. In 2018 alone the army eradicated 84,000 square metres of cultivated lands despite the fact the market was stalling. Another sore point are the gold mines, also in the mountainous areas, and which immediately become the target of criminal gangs. Taking control of the streets and occupying villages is a way for gangs to consolidate their power and the reason behind their threats to villagers. If they are not willing to give up or leave, war breaks out and daily violence the norm.

L'articolo Child Soldiers in the Fight Against Drug Gangs proviene da InsideOver.

When I was a child I supported the Native Americans, my grandfather read Tex and I felt a sort of pity for them when we saw them in the western movies,

depicted as bloody assassins constantly desperate for scalps and bison hides in every situation.

But I found out the truth few years later, when I took the same routes traveled by the Lakota, the direct descendants of great chiefs such as Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse.

The hills and the wide prairies running along the state route 73 of South Dakota rise up from a land where millions of bison and redskins are buried. But what is left today of the legendary Native Americans? Perhaps you will find some murals in the new cities like Rapid City, or some pieces of art depicting the faces of the Sioux chiefs who once held dominion over the prairies…

The Native Americans of today, the Lakota Sioux, represent an open wound in the American people’s conscience as well as in that of the government, who simply pretend they don’t exist. For most “white people”, indeed, Natives Americans have represented a true obstacle to the birth of their great nation, to accessing Black Hills rich with gold, to the exploiting the territory, to the railway, and to their vision of progress in general.
They are left to wander the reserves, with state aid meant to seem like a sort of prize, but this is just a trick, with the 8,000 Lakota (according to the last censuses) of the Mnikówožu, Itázipčho, Sihásapa and Oóhenuŋpa nations having tried to resist in every way possible.
In the six native reserves of South Dakota, the sale of alcohol and gambling are forbidden, but as soon as you pass the border casinos start popping up. They were initially created to attract the “white people”, but quickly they turned up in places of perdition for the Natives, who tended to buy their liquor here and more.

After more than 125 years, massacres like the one of the Wounded Knee remaining a pressing memory for the Native population. These wounds never heal, in every neighborhood the flags of the 70’s uprisings still wave and the suffering in the reserve is visible everywhere: dead eyes, consumed by alcohol and drugs, bodies become obese because diabetes and bad nutrition is rampant. In this tragic list of sufferings, many women are also abused. Even though this sense of desperation continues to grow among the Sioux, you can catch a glimpse of a silent resistance being carried out by those who continue to believe strongly in spiritual values.

An invisible population that, fortunately, keeps its history and traditions alive, living with full respect of Mother Nature. There are unbelievable stories of families that through their ancestors’ tradition have recreate a presence, passing down the values of the tribes which used to inhabit the prairies. There is Richard Giago, one of the best constructors of bows and arrows, who runs a ranch where he runs lessons in archery and how to do hippotherapy with children. There is Julee Richard who, with his pick-up truck, organizes patrols to hinder the methamphetamine traffic in the reserve of Pine Ridge. There is Joe Brings Plenty who, with his boxing gym at Cheyenne River, trains new warriors and, above all, takes young people off of the streets and teaches them the bases of sport ethics combined with spirituality.

“Can you see that wood? There are tens of trees living side by side and none of them force the other to become an oak or a fir. No tree tries, with his own roots, to invade next trees’ space, even if they are different. In nature the concept of “different” doesn’t exist”. Moses Brings Plenty – medicine man of the Cherry Creek tribe of Cheyenne River (South Dakota, 2015)

Spirituality is the only way to hinder the decline of the Sioux: their rituals, their past and their prayers are the key for the future. Living in full contact with the four elements, sleeping on a tepee during the holy week, listening to the elders, singing and praying around the fire. The sun dance with sacrifices and the sweat lodges are traditions the Lakota are trying to keep alive so as not to lose these treasure that will continue to be handed down.

The young Moses Brings Plenty and his brother Joe are confident that this rebirth shall not be limited to the Lakota population, but it should be offered to anyone who is really willing to change their lifestyle, and return to a way of living based on the circle of life: “We must learn again to be a community, to live and think like a community, where people can help each other, without yearning to be the first. Beauties are all around us, just sit under a tree and listen to the sound of nature”.

L'articolo Sioux, the last Native Americans proviene da InsideOver.