Mexican villages arm children in desperate bid By MARIA VERZA article Children hold their training weapons, some real and some fake, during a display for the media designed to attract the federal government's attention to the dangers of organized crime their town negotiates daily in Ayahualtempa, Guerrero state, Mexico Expand AYAHUALTEMPA, Mexico - The children in this mountain village usually spend their days caring for goats or cows and playing with their dogs. But on the rare occasions that the press comes to Ayahualtempa, the kids are lined up and handed guns. They pull on the shirts of a community police force, cover their faces with handkerchiefs, grab their guns — fake wooden ones for the youngest — and line up in formation on the town’s basketball court to pose and march for the cameras.