How a small Mexican town kicked out organised crime

Women work at a tree nursery in Cheran, Michoacan State, Mexico. Trees from the nursery are used for reforestation projects or sold to nearby towns. Photos / Bloomberg, Washington Post

More than 180,000 people have been killed in Mexico since then-President Felipe Calderon sent the army to fight organised crime groups in his native state of Michoacan in 2006.

But one small town in that state says it hasn't had a homicide since 2011 because its residents - led by women - took up arms to kick out groups who had expanded from drug trafficking into illegal logging. If illegal loggers are caught, their tools and machines are confiscated. Depending on the extent of damage to the land, illegal loggers are fined and could face jail time.

This year, Mexico homicides climbed to 12,155 through June, according the nation's Interior Ministry, up 31 per cent from the same period in 2016.

The 2234 killings in June were the most since any month since at least 2001.

While overall in Michoacán, federal authorities say 614 people have been killed this year, a 16 per cent increase from 2016, the people of Cherán say they've become immune to serious crime.

They expelled the politicians and local police, and community members now patrol the area wearing uniforms emblazoned with the slogan "For Justice, Security and the Restoration of Our Territory."

Photographer César Rodríguez travelled to the town of 20,000 to photograph the community.

Pedro Chavez Sanchez, a member of Cherán's elder council, told Rodríguez how Cherán succeeds in spite of the violence growing in the rest of Mexico.

"Things can not change unless you change things within, and that is how we did it. We worked as a community to create the change that we wanted. We listened to our elders, we trusted in our customs.

"If we have a problem, it is our problem, we solve it as a whole. We have no political parties, and we have no organised crime."

Pedro Chavez Sanches says: "Since the very beginning we have wanted three things: security, justice, and the restoration of our land.

"Security was made possible thanks to our community patrol. The reconstitution of our land has been made possible because of the tree nursery. Justice, however, that is not that easy. The people of Cherán have lost loved ones, have family members that remain missing, they have pain, so justice is the hardest to reach, but we are progressing."

The Mexican Government recognises Cherán as an autonomous, self-governing community.

Members of the Forest Keepers patrol in search of illegal loggers in Cheran.

Members of the local police force, known as the Ronda Comunitaria, guard a checkpoint.

Women work in the tree nursery.

- Bloomberg