Hundreds of Mexican families fleeing cartel violence in Mexico’s southern state of Chiapas have sought refuge across the border in Guatemala Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo confirmed Wednesday children and elderly people crossed into Guatemala from Chiapas settling in communities within the border state of Huehuetenango #Chiapas: Así se cruzan convoy de camionetas esta noche en la región de la Sierra y la Frontera. Reportan enfrentamientos en AMATENANGO DE LA FRONTERA. Familias enteras han quedado atrapados en el fuego cruzado. Esta noche es la pesadilla más larga en mucho tiempo que viven… pic.twitter.com/9EzmwS2Zja — Isaín Mandujano (@isain) July 25, 2024 Major Ann Marie Argueta of Guatemala’s Ministry of National Defense said that approximately 180 displaced individuals are being sheltered in a community within the Guatemalan municipality of Cuilco Mexican refugees have arrived in at least two other communities Their number totals approximately 580 people according to Guatemala’s Executive Secretariat of the National Coordinator for Disaster Reduction (CONRED) The agency and other institutions have been providing shelter At least one school was being used as a shelter The exodus comes as violent clashes between the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) continue unabated in Chiapas’ southern, mountainous areas. Locals say the latest round of violence between the two largest criminal gangs in Mexico According to the digital media outlet Chiapas Paralelo, a criminal group arrived Tuesday in the Chiapas town of San José de los Pozos — located in the municipality of Amatenango de la Frontera The group evicted all the town’s inhabitants They “had to flee with the little they had on them,” Chiapas Paralelo noted and many of them could not even [take] their vehicles.” the refugees then began the long walk to Cuilco situated just over 30 kilometers from the Chiapas border Some ended up in two other Cuilco villages — Perla Escondida and El Oaxaqueño Guatemala’s Human Rights Ombudsman’s office and its Army estimated the number of displaced Mexicans at around 300 we are presenting a risk situation for the Guatemalan population,” Huehuetenango Governor Elsa Hernández said NGOs and other institutions to provide humanitarian support the Mexican authorities have not taken any action to protect their citizens,” Hernández added Mexican authorities had yet to officially comment on the displacement as of Thursday leaving the exact number of refugees uncertain the Mexican newspaper La Jornada reported Thursday that Chiapas state security ministry officials had told its reporters that they had received no reports of displaced individuals in that area President Arévalo, speaking on Wednesday at the opening of a hospital in another part of the country emphasized the dire circumstances and violence driving the Mexican citizens’ displacements is mobilizing resources to provide assistance through its Ministry of Defense and through local authorities as well as deploying its military to provide augmented security in the zone The situation in Chiapas has deteriorated significantly due to cartel disputes over drug trafficking routes a situation that has exacerbated poverty and violence in Indigenous communities Underscoring the precarious conditions faced by the fleeing Mexican families a 91-year-old diabetic woman died en route to Guatemala due to lack of medication Luckier was the situation of a boy who had been recovering from a recent surgery in his Chiapas community: La Jornada reported that he was receiving postoperative care in Guatemala while dramatic in its suddenness and in the number of refugees marks a continuation of migration trends from southern Mexico into Guatemala since early 2024 Recent incidents, including a public display of bodies in Chiapas, have highlighted the brutal tactics employed by the criminal organizations involved ADVERTISE WITH MND COMMUNITY GUIDELINES Subscription FAQ's Privacy Policy Mexico News Daily - Property of Tavana LLC Leading presidential candidate Claudia Sheinbaum had a disquieting experience while traveling in Chiapas on Sunday: Her vehicle was stopped by hooded and masked men who asked her to combat violence in the southern state if she wins the June 2 election The vehicle in which the ruling Morena party candidate was traveling was stopped when entering Motozintla One man — part of an armed group claiming to be to be a kind of local self-defense force — read a message to Sheinbaum who was seated in the front passenger seat of the vehicle with her window down The encounter was filmed and subsequently posted to social media “Remember the poor people,” he continued adding that “we’re not against the government” and “we’re not against you.” The man told Sheinbaum that “we don’t want Motozintla to be another disaster like [Frontera] Comalapa,” a municipality that is part of a region of Chiapas that has long been plagued by a violent turf war between the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and the Sinaloa Cartel to do us the favor of clearing this section [of road] to Comalapa [of criminals] because we can’t get there if we go there they tear us to shreds,” he said We won’t take any more of your time and thank you very much for stopping,” the man added before shaking Sheinbaum’s hand Another masked man said there was a feeling of “helplessness” among citizens and asserted that the government “has never done anything for these lands.” Sheinbaum remained calm throughout the minute-long encounter and thanked the men before continuing on her way She later held a campaign event in Motozintla before traveling to Tapachula to catch a flight “Some people who said they were residents stopped us,” she told reporters at the Tapachula airport Sheinbaum said she didn’t believe the hooded and masked men are involved in drug trafficking although Motozintla residents reportedly identified them as members of the Sinaloa Cartel She also said she didn’t feel intimidated “… What caught my attention the most was that … [reporters] from Latinus were there,” the Morena candidate said Sheinbaum stopped short of saying the encounter was a media stunt but President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) asserted Monday that it is “very probable” that it was when these things happen we know that it is very probable that it’s propaganda because he who [usually] goes to make a proposal [to a politician or candidate] isn’t masked or filming,” AMLO said “… It’s very probable that it [was] a montaje,” he said “It’s very probable because [they were] masked why would they put a hood on?” he said López Obrador noted that Carlos Loret de Mola works for Latinus and “he is against us.” The president is a frequent and ardent critic of Loret de Mola, a high-profile journalist who worked on the broadcast of a well-known montaje in 2005 “Look at that microphone,” he said referring to one visible during Sheinbaum’s encounter with the hooded and masked men And where were the rest of the journalists they’re capable of that and more — they’re experts in montajes And they don’t have moral scruples of any kind and they’re corrupt,” AMLO said López Obrador said that the incident with Sheinbaum on Sunday would be investigated but added that he didn’t believe it was “something serious.” AMLO asserted that those opposed to the government and Morena — who he referred to as “the corrupt conservatives” — are trying to inflict damage in the lead-up to the June 2 elections with “sensationalism” and “propaganda.” “The ‘narco-president’ thing didn’t work that it wasn’t going to rain but it rained yesterday they’re going around like vultures [trying to find something to hurt the government] but fortunately nothing is working,” he said Most polls indicate that Sheinbaum has a commanding lead in the presidential contest in which her main rival is opposition bloc candidate Xóchitl Gálvez Morena and its allies are expected to win a majority in Congress, although it appears unlikely they will get enough votes to reach a two-thirds majority that would allow them to approve constitutional reforms without the support of other parties The smattering of houses and shops at San Gregorio Chamic is 25 miles from the sprawling town of Frontera Comalapa in the far south of Mexico by the border with Guatemala Between them is one of the many front lines dividing cartels that zig-zag across Mexico like cuts on shattered glass Chamic is the territory of the Sinaloa Cartel and its local affiliates while Comalapa is controlled by the Jalisco New Generation Cartel The mafias both command paramilitary wings and mobs of “civilians,” who blockade roads and control who enters the Sinaloa Cartel shut down all transit going through Chamic as well as from the other side through a town called Motozintla and managed to starve Comalapa of supplies Desperate residents posted videos of supermarkets with empty shelves the two sides erupted into a new round of firefights and torching cars and the Mexican army rolled in The area was also the scene of this viral video below in September showing a convoy of trucks rolling through Chamic packed with gunmen to a cheering crowd It was portrayed as the Sinaloa Cartel liberating the town from the Jalisco mob to happy residents The Sinaloa Cartel already controlled the territory were either part of the cartel’s larger forces or were ordered under duress to go out and cheer (or be forced to pay a fine) It was a new type of narco propaganda video Mexico’s southern state of Chiapas has long avoided the worst of the cartel wars plaguing swathes of the country It was better known for the Zapatista rebels that rose up in 1994 and became a symbol for indigenous rights and the anti-globalization movement The colonial town of San Cristóbal and the pyramids of Palenque are popular tourist spots The cartels move and sell drugs in Chiapas as everywhere they go. And the state is a pathway for migrants heading to the United States, which means there is a human smuggling business they can tax. But they are also taking over broader rackets such as control of informal street vendors, giving them money from tens of thousands of people. They have gained power by taking over local forces, not just of criminals but of community groups and village militias. And by doing so, they have mixed old local beefs with the new narco war, making Chiapas an especially explosive front. Frontera Comalapa by the Mexico-Guatemala border We drive up to an Oxxo store to buy coffee and an SUV appears and blocks us in. Its occupants are in black t-shirts and baseball caps, smarter and with more swagger than the mob at the entrance, and they stare us down as we sip from the paper cups. I give them a nod and after ten minutes they drive off and we get out of town. We roll into the border crossing with Guatemala, known as La Mesilla. It’s normally a thriving market for cross-border trade, with Mexicans buying cheaper Guatemalan clothes and Guatemalans buying Mexican canned goods and produce. But now people are staying away because of the violence and it’s totally dead, smashing the local economy. The crossing was also a big corridor for undocumented migrants but again the fighting has killed the route and voyagers are crossing further south at Tapachula or further north at points such as Tenosique. I wonder if a cartel has deliberately shut down the route to hurt the business of the other. Cartels can be better at controlling migration flows than governments. A pair of state police officers stop us and search the car. They demand a passport but back off when I flash a press pass. They talk about the shoot outs and how crazy recent fighting was at Motozintla but assure us the army will make it go back to normal. We pass another mob into the town of Comalapa, this time of sturdy looking men, one with a machete, and head through the streets to a pastor who has agreed to meet us. We sit down in his home next to his church and he serves us roast chicken and rice and tells us about the situation. “We have been invaded,” he says. The pastor is an evangelical who converted from Catholicism after he suffered a drink problem then was born again and he set up his church here over a decade ago His congregation grew and things were going fine until about two years ago when the Jalisco Cartel arrived “They got all the leaders of the organizations together and they said ‘You have to work for us.’ ” I ask about these “organizations,” and he explains they are everything from street vendors to taxi drivers to farmers to neighborhood committees a structure that emerged across Chiapas over decades the cartel is able to extort money from a large chunk of the economy “Everyone is made to pay their quota,” he says The arrival of the Jalisco Cartel and its war with the Sinaloans has been devastating for the pastor’s church either to other parts of Mexico or the United States “We have lost most of our brothers and sisters,” he says The cartel sends informers to see what he says in the services so he’s careful what he preaches. He cites a teacher who organized a local march against the insecurity. In October, gunmen went to his home in the nearby town of Chicomuselo at 3 am, tied up his wife and son, and beat him in front of them before putting a bullet in his head. When I ask about the army, the pastor shakes his head. The Jalisco Cartel openly has what he calls “offices,” where they organize and the military don’t mess with them. “There is nobody here to protect us,” the pastor tells me. As we drive out of town, we see a splattering of soldiers loitering on the streets. But even if the troops did go after the cartel gunmen, they can act like guerrillas and disappear into the hills and safe houses only to reappear later. And as military strategists have pointed out, to combat such a guerilla threat you have to control every inch of ground. Enriqueta points out that the Mexican state has always been lacking in this region and armed groups have long been operating, such as those of the paramilitaries of ranchers and profiteers. “It is a place on the border lands, far away from the Mexican center of power but close to Guatemala. There is fluid population going through it. There are many divisions, between the long term residents and migrants, between the ranchers and campesinos. There is a history of violence.” With such a checkered past, these developments can seem less extraordinary than in a place that has known peace and good governance. “Now it’s difficult to distinguish between social groups and organized crime groups,” Enriqueta says. The narco presence also has a history in the area, albeit with less violence as the Sinaloa Cartel used to operate unchallenged. As well as moving cocaine through the state, the Sinaloan gangsters used it to launder money. Residents of San Cristóbal talk openly of a chain of hotels and gas stations owned by an infamous narco; the official owner is a former shoeshine boy who suddenly became a major investor. However, Enriqueta says the Jalisco Cartel appeared about five years ago and gradually expanded its territory until it sparked the current war. The new strength of the Jalisco mob in Chiapas owes much to their links with powerful Guatemalan gangsters from a clan known as Las Huistas. While the Huistas are no household name, the U.S. State Department offers a whopping $10 million reward for their alleged head, Don Dario, who is accused of smuggling vast amounts of cocaine. Enriqueta says the Jalisco mob built their power base from the south expanding territory from Guatemala into Mexico This explains how they managed to be surrounded by the Sinaloa Cartel inside Mexican territory “They have a very disciplined paramilitary structure,” Enriqueta says A Mexican army intelligence dispatch in 2022 reported cartel gunmen in the area moving back and fourth from Guatemala The soldiers also found uniforms from Guatemala’s elite Kaibil wing which specializes in jungle warfare and anti insurgency Former Kaibiles have worked for Mexican cartels before and it’s diverse politically,” Enriqueta says the current cartel war is different in different places The highlands around Ocosingo are the center of the Zapatista movement which has tried to resist the incursion of organized crime The indigenous town of San Juan Chamula has given birth to its own mafia But the situation on the southern border is the most extreme. With such a sudden rise of violence and extortion, I wonder how big the reaction could be. Several autodefensas, or self-defense squads, have announced their formation this year including one calling itself the Civil Army of Indigenous People. With its history of rebellion and armed groups, Chiapas could face a conflict like that which erupted in Michoacán State in 2014 when vigilantes and narcos faced off in trench warfare. But tragically while that conflict led to thousands of deaths, it ultimately failed to stop the endemic cartel war. CrashOut by Ioan Grillo is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Copyright Ioan Grillo and CrashOutMedia 2023 ReplyShare 12 replies by Ioan Grillo and others 46 more comments...TopLatestDiscussionsNo posts This is the first of a three-part series from Mexico\u2019s southern state of Chiapas. Para leer en espa\u00F1ol click aqui. Subscribe now The mafias both command paramilitary wings and mobs of \u201Ccivilians,\u201D who blockade roads and control who enters were either part of the cartel\u2019s larger forces or were ordered under duress to go out and cheer (or be forced to pay a fine) Mexico\u2019s southern state of Chiapas has long avoided the worst of the cartel wars plaguing swathes of the country The colonial town of San Crist\u00F3bal and the pyramids of Palenque are popular tourist spots We roll into the border crossing with Guatemala, known as La Mesilla. It\u2019s normally a thriving market for cross-border trade, with Mexicans buying cheaper Guatemalan clothes and Guatemalans buying Mexican canned goods and produce. But now people are staying away because of the violence and it\u2019s totally dead, smashing the local economy. We pass another mob into the town of Comalapa, this time of sturdy looking men, one with a machete, and head through the streets to a pastor who has agreed to meet us. We sit down in his home next to his church and he serves us roast chicken and rice and tells us about the situation. \u201CWe have been invaded,\u201D he says. \u201CThey got all the leaders of the organizations together and they said \u2018You have to work for us.\u2019 \u201D I ask about these \u201Corganizations,\u201D and he explains they are everything from street vendors to taxi drivers to farmers to neighborhood committees \u201CEveryone is made to pay their quota,\u201D he says The arrival of the Jalisco Cartel and its war with the Sinaloans has been devastating for the pastor\u2019s church \u201CWe have lost most of our brothers and sisters,\u201D he says \u201CWe are struggling to just keep going.\u201D The cartel sends informers to see what he says in the services so he\u2019s careful what he preaches. He cites a teacher who organized a local march against the insecurity. In October, gunmen went to his home in the nearby town of Chicomuselo at 3 am, tied up his wife and son, and beat him in front of them before putting a bullet in his head. When I ask about the army, the pastor shakes his head. The Jalisco Cartel openly has what he calls \u201Coffices,\u201D where they organize and the military don\u2019t mess with them. \u201CThere is nobody here to protect us,\u201D the pastor tells me. \u201CIt is a place on the border lands, far away from the Mexican center of power but close to Guatemala. There is fluid population going through it. There are many divisions, between the long term residents and migrants, between the ranchers and campesinos. There is a history of violence.\u201D With such a checkered past, these developments can seem less extraordinary than in a place that has known peace and good governance. \u201CNow it\u2019s difficult to distinguish between social groups and organized crime groups,\u201D Enriqueta says. The narco presence also has a history in the area, albeit with less violence as the Sinaloa Cartel used to operate unchallenged. As well as moving cocaine through the state, the Sinaloan gangsters used it to launder money. Residents of San Crist\u00F3bal talk openly of a chain of hotels and gas stations owned by an infamous narco; the official owner is a former shoeshine boy who suddenly became a major investor. \u201CThey have a very disciplined paramilitary structure,\u201D Enriqueta says A Mexican army intelligence dispatch in 2022 reported cartel gunmen in the area moving back and fourth from Guatemala The soldiers also found uniforms from Guatemala\u2019s elite Kaibil wing and it\u2019s diverse politically,\u201D Enriqueta says But the situation on the southern border is the most extreme. With such a sudden rise of violence and extortion, I wonder how big the reaction could be. Several autodefensas, or self-defense squads, have announced their formation this year including one calling itself the Civil Army of Indigenous People. With its history of rebellion and armed groups, Chiapas could face a conflict like that which erupted in Michoac\u00E1n State in 2014 when vigilantes and narcos faced off in trench warfare. But tragically while that conflict led to thousands of deaths, it ultimately failed to stop the endemic cartel war.