A volunteer citizen police member holds up a bone fragment found during a dig for human remains on the outskirts of Iguala, Mexico. Remains found in nearly a dozen secret burial sites near Iguala are being tested as part of a hunt for 43 students who disappeared in September, 2014, an episode that has only underscored the severity of Mexico’s organized crime crisis.

Self defense force members listen while Dr. José Manuel Mireles gives a motivational speech to residents in Tancitaro, days after the town, located in the mountains of Mexico's Michoacan state, liberated itself in November, 2013, from the oppressive drug cartel that calls itself the Knights Templar. Mireles led a movement to unify and assist self defense vigilantes to protect themselves against the cartel. They took over dozens of towns in Michoacan before reaching an uneasy truce with the government to become part of the state's rural police.

Wearing his signature black sombrero, Dr. José Manuel Mireles gives a motivational speech to residents in Tancitaro, days after the town, located in the mountains of Mexico's Michoacan state, liberated itself in November, 2013, from the oppressive drug cartel that calls itself the Knights Templar. Mireles led a movement to unify and assist self defense vigilantes to protect themselves against the cartel and drive all criminals out of their communities.

Self defense force members in Mexico's Michoacan state race into isolated mountain terrain at high noon, prepared for potential confrontation, during an operation to take over another village in the state's Tierra Caliente zone in January, 2013. Self defense groups seized control of dozens of towns in Michoacan before reaching an uneasy truce with the government to become part of the state's rural police.

Auto defense group members in Mexico's Michoacan stop vehicles on an isolated mountain road at high noon, while their comrades search nearby wooded areas, in an effort to secure the area before taking over another village in the state's Tierra Caliente zone. Self defense groups seized control of dozens of towns in Michoacan before reaching an uneasy truce with the government to become part of the state's rural police. Similar self defense groups are proliferating throughout Mexico.

Inside a shelter for families escaping violence in Ciudad Mier, a four year-old child plays with toys, next to a deck of Pokemon cards and an empty bullet shell found by an older boy in his yard. Starting in November 2010, warring drug cartels started to fight each other, driving out most of the city's residents who feared for their lives. Around 400 Mier residents came to this provisional shelter in nearby Miguel Alemán.

A cross in the public cemetery outside Ciudad Juárez symbolically testifies to the demise of a once thriving city in the midst of Mexico's drug wars.

Police secure a crime scene after an ambush on the outskirts of Ciudad Juárez left one suspected drug trafficker dead and another severely wounded in January 2009. As the latter was being transported to the hospital, his enemies caught up with the ambulance and finished him off.

Forensic specialists arrive at a crime scene to examine the body of a store owner murdered in Ciudad Juárez by gangsters armed with AK-47 rifles. His young daughter was also killed in the crossfire.

Inside the Ciudad Juárez morgue, blood drips from a murder victim's body a few hours after his death, suspected to be drug gang related. During the period between 2008 and 2012, Mexican cartels battling for control of drug trafficking routes caused widespread disruption and violence throughout Juarez, leading many to call the city the murder capital of the world.

Municipal police and private bodyguards practice night shooting during an informal course taught by Israeli experts in Mexico's Jalisco state.

Armed with poles, machetes, and whatever items that can be used as weapons, young vigilante self defense force members stand guard at a checkpoint near Tancitaro, a town high in the mountains of Mexico's Michoacan state, where thousands of local residents banded together to rid their town of members of a threatening drug cartel that calls itself the Knights Templar in November 2013.

Members of a self defense force near the town of Pareo, in Mexico's Michoacan state, take a nap inside an avocado grove, next to a checkpoint they monitor leading into their town. Pareo is one of dozens of towns where residents have formed community vigilante forces in recent years to drive out a threatening drug cartel that calls itself the Knights Templar.

A suspected Knights Templar member lies dead after a firefight on the outskirts of Parácuaro, a town located in the Tierra Caliente region of Michoacán. The town was controlled by the Knights Templar organized crime cartel. In January, 2014, self defense forces took control of Parácuaro, in their march towards Apatzingan, the alleged headquarter of the Knights Templar. The federal government, afraid of the situation getting out of control, stepped in when the self defense forces reached the outskirts of Apatzingán. An uneasy truce was called between the army and the vigilantes.

Members of Mexican self defense forces man a barricade outside Parácuaro, a town located in the Tierra Caliente region of Michoacán. The town was controlled by the Knights Templar organized crime cartel until self defense forces ousted them and took control of the town in January, 2014, in their march towards Apatzingan, the alleged headquarter of the Knights Templar. The federal government, afraid of the situation getting out of control, stepped in when the self-defense forces reached the outskirts of Apatzingán. An uneasy truce was called between the army and the vigilantes.

A young boy marvels at weapons carried by self defense force members who came to give a motivational speech in the town of Pareo, Michoacan, where residents last year banded together to throw out members of a drug cartel that calls itself the Knights Templar. Self defense groups seized control of dozens of towns in Michoacan before reaching an uneasy truce with the government to become part of the state's rural police. Similar self defense groups are proliferating throughout Mexico.

Inside his office, Mexico’s most well-known and outspoken anti-violence activist Javier Sicilia, whose son was killed by violent criminals, appears exhausted and jaded by politicians’ lip service to his organization’s proposed Victim’s Law. Discouraged, the journalist, activist, poet and father eventually stepped away from leading his peace organization.

Against a backdrop of photos from her wedding, Fanny Carranza Domínguez displays the bloodied clothing that her husband, Gonzalo Domínguez Díaz, was wearing when unidentified gunmen assassinated him in May 2006. Domínguez was among more than 100 law enforcement officials gunned down or tortured to death in Mexico that year. Much of the violence has been attributed to intensified turf wars between drug gangs who have used increasingly brutal methods to drive home their threatening messages, including dozens of beheadings.

A hit man for Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel shows his tattoos and bullet wounds, while waiting for treatment in a hospital on Mexico's Pacific Coast. The man grew up in Los Angeles, where he entered the drug trading world. Eventually, he returned to Mexico to continue working in the drug trade. The memory that haunts him the most is when he was ordered to kill his best friend, he said.

The setting sun casts a glow over Jardines del Humaya in Culiacán, Sinaloa, one of the most notorious cemeteries in Mexico. Culiacán has long been a center of the country’s drug trade, and families often erect elaborate mausoleums for gang members killed in the drug battles.

A horse shaped balloon floats at sunset, marking the graves of the recently buried inside Jardines del Humaya in Culiacán, Sinaloa, one of the most notorious cemeteries in Mexico. Culiacán has long been a center of the country’s drug trade, and families often erect elaborate mausoleums for gang members killed in the drug battles.

Police officers fire a salute at the funeral of Guanajuato police officer Sergio "Chava" Garza, killed with four others in a drive-by shooting as they ate breakfast outside a restaurant at the height of Mexico's drug war. Garza's family members marched in protest following his death, claiming that the local government had failed to give officers the means to combat powerful cartels.

Zynthia Cazares mourns kidnapped family members (pictured on left). Gunmen forcibly took Cazares and 17 other family members from three different family homes in Matamoros, Mexico in July 2011. The kidnappers set the women and children free but kept five men hostage, including Cazare's brother, husband and father (pictured from L-R in family photos). In 2012, the Cazares women began making pleas to Mexican local and federal law enforcement agencies. Cazares agreed to be photographed not showing her face.

Citizens in Mexico City erect a symbolic altar at the end of a silent march through the city in 2008 to protest escalating violence and continued impunity throughout the country.

Citizens in Mexico City erect a symbolic altar at the end of a silent march through the city in 2008 to protest escalating violence and continued impunity throughout the country.

The small Mexican border town of Ciudad Mier resembles a ghost town, months after warring cartels in Mexico's northern Tamaulipas state made the city unlivable due to their violent gun battles in November, 2010.

The Mexican army accompanies fearful Ciudad Mier residents as they return briefly to see their abandoned town. Mier remained a virtual ghost town, a year after warring cartels in Mexico's northern Tamaulipas state made the city unlivable due to their violent gun battles in November, 2010.

While traveling on an isolated country road, municipal police in Tabasco observe a convoy of cars approaching them. Suspecting they might be drug cartel members, the police let the cars pass them in the night, knowing that they could never stand a chance against them.