Over 280,000 Displaced by Drug Violence in Mexico - and Ready to Vote? Melissa del Pozo - VICE News
go to original May 7, 2015

Countless people belong to a social group in Mexico that is largely unseen and difficult to measure — the drug war's internally displaced.

Guerrero has the highest known figures of internally displaced people in Mexico due to the country's ongoing drug-related violence, reports say.

Complete figures are difficult to come by, but according to the Mexican Commission for the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights, a non-profit organization, at least 281,418 people were displaced internally in Mexico between 2011 and February of this year.

Around 20 percent of those displaced inside Mexico are in Guerrero alone, giving it the highest share of internally displaced, the group said. An international report released on Wednesday reinforced those figures.

In such a scenario, enthusiasm — or simply support — for Mexico's upcoming midterm elections is low. Violence has already been felt in the campaign. Two mayoral candidates in Guerrero have been killed since campaigning started, including Friday's shooting of an Institutional Revolutionary Party candidate in Chilapa.

Voting is scheduled on June 7th, but it's almost out of the question for internal refugees who spoke to VICE News.

Read the rest at VICE News

Photo: Alejandrino Gonzalez/AP

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