Thousands Displaced by Mexico's Drug Wars: Gov't Is 'Deaf and Blind' to Our Plight Jo Tuckman - The Guardian
go to original April 3, 2015

Mexico's ongoing drug war is notorious for its tens of thousands of murders and disappearances. But there are many other victims we hear little about, those who are forced from their homes as they flee the violence. (France 24)

Mexico’s drug wars have claimed the lives of at least 100,000 people in the last eight years; around 22,000 others have disappeared. The exact figures are the subject of intense debate, but another aspect of the violence has received much less attention: violence between warring crime groups and security forces has also forced hundreds of thousands to flee their homes.

“This has been an invisible problem. We are dealing with authorities who do not want to recognize how serious this is,” said Laura Rubio, an academic working on internal displacement with an NGO called the Mexican Commission for the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights.

A recent study by the commission concluded that at least 281,418 people have been internally displaced in Mexico since 2011. This total includes 141 “mass displacements” of 10 families or more.

The organization is hoping to use these figures to pressure the authorities into officially recognizing Mexico’s displaced as victims of the violence, in order to help them get access to government support as they struggle to rebuild their lives.

Read the rest at The Guardian

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