Indigenous community police under fire in cartel-torn Mexican areas

Indigenous community police in Mexico are increasingly being targeted by drug cartels, officials said Monday.

Adrián López, the chief prosecutor of Michoacan, reported that seven members of the neighborhood police were shot dead by members of a drug cartel in the city of Coahuayana over the weekend, a deadly escalation of violence.

A few days earlier, seven officers from another indigenous police force had been kidnapped and subjected to brutal conditions before being released, underscoring the growing dangers to which these local defenders are exposed.

(With input from agencies.)