Autonomy is not built during protests, but before, during and after. Above all, afterward. The protest must not be something only reactive, because in that way, the initiative is always outside of the movement. Autonomy demands a long process of internal work and requires daily tension to keep it going.
Last year armed self-defense groups in Pantelhó made their presence public in order to run organized crime out of their municipality. Though residents appointed new councillors, a recently appointed accountant stirred up suspicions with fiscal irregularities.
“It is impossible to analyze the phenomena of insecurity and criminality in Mexico without taking into account its proximity to a nation that is as sick with violence as it is powerful, and whose disease infects other nations in many ways.”
