In response to illegal logging in their community the Indigenous Purepecha people of Cherán, Michoacán organize a defense force based on their traditional forms of self governance and defense. With their women as the catalysts, the community erected barricades, drove out illegal loggers and gangsters, seized control of abandoned police and government assets and turned to their elders for guidance. La Ronda, the community’s traditional, volunteer defense force began patrols of the town and the surrounding forests. This is how it’s done.

For more information, see El Enemigo Común’s article.