Today's print edition Home Delivery Violence and crime absorb almost 3.5% of economic output of the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region depleting funds that could be used in education and assisting the vulnerable a report by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has found the cost of crime amounts to almost 80% of the region's public budgets for education twice as much as what is spent on social assistance and 12 times the budget for research and development using data from 2022 and published on Monday showed.googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1499653692894-0'); }); We must join and redouble efforts to change that reality," IDB President Ilan Goldfajn said in a statement In a time of both misinformation and too much information quality journalism is more crucial than ever.By subscribing Your subscription plan doesn't allow commenting. To learn more see our FAQ Sponsored contents planned and edited by JT Media Enterprise Division by Zeferino Nandayapa RaldaMarimba Yajalon Medleyby Zeferino Nandayapa RaldaMarimba Yajalon by Beau Bledsoe and John CurreyMireya Ramos with Marimba Sol de Chiapas and Ensemble Iberica by Beau Bledsoe and John CurreyMarimba Sol de Chiapas and Ensemble Iberica arr by Beau Bledsoe and John CurreyMarimba Sol de Chiapas and Ensemble Iberica Tapiz Para El Kapitanby James MobberleyMarimba Yajalon with Paul Freeman and the Czech National Symphony Orchestra You can learn more about Marimba Sol de Chiapas at mexicanmarimba.com, and more info about Ensemble Iberica and their upcoming performances can be found at ensembleiberica.org The nearly 4,200 residents who fled their town in Chiapas over the weekend due to an armed attack remain fearful of returning to their homes despite government efforts to ensure their safety pretty much the entire population of the municipality of Tila — a town less than 50 kilometers from the Palenque archaeological zone — left their homes after an attack by an armed group the most egregious in what residents say has been continuous terrorizing of their town for months by two criminal groups in a turf war which is located 1,090 meters above sea level about 230 kilometers from the state capital of Tuxtla Gutierrez Photos distributed by state authorities showed people fleeing with just purses on their shoulders or sometimes small backpacks or shoulder bags Authorities have set up camps for the displaced are reluctant to return despite a plan hatched by authorities on Tuesday but who can guarantee that we will be safe?” Gómez said from a sports court turned into a displaced persons’ camp in the nearby city of Yajalon “We will not return until we know that when we leave the house they will not kill us,” said a 60-year-old man who identified himself only as Saúl A woman named María said that gangs have been trying to extort people “for months,” and that “anyone who doesn’t pay will be killed.” “There is no solution in sight,” added Gómez who said he witnessed armed gangs shooting up the town and burning his relatives’ homes The Digna Ochoa Human Rights Center has identified the group responsible for the violence as Autónomos a criminal group linked to drug trafficking President Andrés Manuel López Obrador described the situation as a conflict among locals He noted that the Mexican army’s arrival over the weekend to help escort people out of town saved many families However, the displaced community remains skeptical of the protection offered by the military and National Guard, which ended up in a shootout with the Autónomos on Friday that left one soldier dead and one injured residents insisted on concrete guarantees for their safety and justice for those responsible for the violence They criticized recent negotiations as lacking transparency and called for more effective dozens of fully armed people arrived in the Chiapas town by truck and began the attack on Tila shooting at houses and places of business and burning buildings Some reports said they were members of the Karma criminal group which is reportedly in a turf war with the Autónomos group Most people in the town under attack then hid in their homes for three days The Tila ejido, collectively owned territory that is part of the National Indigenous Congress (CNI), reported that organized crime and political interests The residents have long denounced the alleged impunity enjoyed by the local city council and have called for the restitution of disputed land The southern state of Chiapas has a history of conflict and displacement. In 1994, the Zapatista Indigenous rights movement’s uprising and subsequent fighting displaced thousands. The 1997 Acteal massacre also led to mass displacements Recent years have seen a slow but steady expulsion of residents due to land and religious disputes The state prosecutor’s office reported arrests in connection with the recent violence including six individuals caught with weapons the displaced remain wary of returning to what is now a ghost town López Obrador expressed regret over the situation and emphasized the need for unity among the town’s residents He has instructed government agencies to form a team to aid the displaced victims with several nearby camps providing food and other supplies ADVERTISE WITH MND COMMUNITY GUIDELINES Subscription FAQ's Privacy Policy Mexico News Daily - Property of Tavana LLC This week, Mexican authorities said they discovered 19 bodies on an isolated dirt road, the latest deaths in a brutal trafficking war that has convulsed Mexico’s poorest and southernmost state. The men had been shot dead, according to Mexico’s Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection, their bodies found in and around the abandoned truck. At least six carried Guatemalan identification. Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Tuesday called the loss of life “lamentable” and blamed a confrontation between two armed groups. “What motivates this?” López Obrador asked at his morning news conference. “The traffic of drugs and also the traffic of migrants, of people.” World & Nation Soldiers and civilians have been killed in separate incidents in recent months involving ‘narco mines’ planted in western Mexico The president, whose six-year term ends Oct. 1 officials and others that up to one-third of Mexican territory — including much of Chiapas state — is under the effective control of criminal groups The Sinaloa Cartel and its major rival, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, are said to be battling to control lucrative smuggling routes in Chiapas, which shares a long and largely remote border with Guatemala. It was not clear whether the dead were affiliated with the Jalisco cartel; nor did authorities clarify if they were executed or killed in a shootout. She’s ‘El Chapo’ Guzman’s lawyer, using her bond with Mexico’s most notorious cartel kingpin to launch a singing career. Onstage, she’s La Abogada. The area is a prime trafficking corridor for cocaine from South America as well as migrants from across the world who enter Mexico from Central America en route to the United States. The lure of illicit profits has drawn criminal mobs to the scenic zone of jungles, mountains and rivers, where much of the population is Indigenous. “Unfortunately, Chiapas has been caught in the middle of this trafficking war for both drugs and migrants,” said Mike Vigil, former head of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s overseas operations. “Smuggling migrants has now become a multibillion dollar business for the cartels.” More than 30 candidates have been killed before the Mexican election on Sunday, as criminal gangs and drug cartels seek more power and control. The Chiapas turf war has wreaked havoc in the once-peaceful state, leaving scores dead, forcing thousands to leave their homes and cratering a once-thriving tourist industry. “Violence has spread like a cancer in our state,” the Chiapas-based Fray Bartolomé de las Casas Center of Human Rights reported in April. “This situation is characterized not only by the armed confrontation among criminal groups, but also the intent to control, with strategies of terror, the social, economic and political life of the communities.” While the mayhem in Chiapas is often described as a battle between the Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels, dozens of armed criminal gangs operate in the state, experts say, some allied with larger groups and others semi-autonomous. Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador criticized the U.S government’s withdrawal of inspectors from avocado packing houses even as both sides said exports to the U.S has seen waves of violence in recent months A spate of attacks on mayoral candidates and their entourages in Chiapas in the run-up to last month’s elections left at least 16 dead, including Lucero Esmeralda López Maza, a 28-year-old woman running for mayor in La Concordia. A series of gun battles there in April killed at least 10, according to police, though a human rights group put the death toll at 25. Times special correspondent Cecilia Sánchez Vidal contributed to this report. Foreign correspondent Patrick J. McDonnell is the Los Angeles Times Mexico City bureau chief and previously headed Times bureaus in Beirut, Buenos Aires and Baghdad. A native of the Bronx, McDonnell is a graduate of Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism and was a Nieman fellow at Harvard. 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