Indigenous Communities in Rural Mexico Get No Help Against Criminal Threats Henry Shuldiner - InSight Crime
go to original June 9, 2022

An indigenous protester in the La Montaña region of Guerrero calls for an end to violence in his community. His poster says, "Enough of the kidnappings." (InSight Crime)

The death of two indigenous leaders in Guerrero, Mexico, has again drawn attention to the government’s negligent protection of indigenous communities targeted by criminal groups throughout Mexico.

In a Facebook post, the Guerrero-Emiliano Zapata Indigenous and Popular Council (Cipog-EZ) announced members Lorena Chantzin Paxacuasingo and Marcos Campos Ahuejote were found dead after they were reported missing on May 6. The Cipog-EZ blamed the Ardillos, a local criminal group known for extorting and kidnapping leaders of the community.

Community members and activists sounded alarm bells about the Ardillos' plans to expand into El Ocotito valley in October 2021, but authorities did little in response. Warnings about an attack came to fruition in January 2022, when a confrontation between the Unión de Pueblos y Organizaciones del Estado de Guerrero (UPOEG), an indigenous self-defense group, and Los Ardillos left four community members dead.

In response to the attacks and several disappearances of Nahuas Indigenous community members, Cipog-EZ organized a series of protests and roadblocks in March 2022, demanding that the government provide better security and protection for their communities, centering the high levels of impunity for criminal groups in Guerrero.

The killings are only the most recent in a series of attacks on the Indigenous communities of Guerrero. In January 2020, the Ardillos murdered ten Indigenous musicians in Chilapa, Guerrero. A self-defense group from the Nahuas community circulated videos of children armed with heavy-duty weapons in response to attacks, claiming them as the newest recruits in the battle against the Ardillos.

The video spread widely on social media and garnered international attention, triggering criticism from President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and state governor Héctor Antonio Astudillo Flores visiting the community. Despite the reaction, the situation has barely changed nearly two and a half years later.

InSight Crime Analysis

In more isolated parts of Mexico, Indigenous communities have become targets of constant and systematic oppression by local criminal groups, as exemplified by the Ardillos' targeting of the Nahuas community.

While the Ardillos have been a constant criminal presence in the mountainous region of Guerrero for two decades, their business has shifted and they have become increasingly reliant on local communities for income. The group once oversaw poppy cultivation and heroin trafficking, forcing members of local communities to work in the fields for them, according to complaints made by victims to police in 2019. But since the decline in demand for heroin, the Ardillos have relied on extortion, kidnapping and illegal mining. Again, local community members have to pay up or recruited to work for the groups.

There is little hope of this changing anytime soon. According to a 2020 report from the International Crisis Group, security forces seldom intervene in Guerrero, essentially allowing criminal organizations free rein to construct laboratories, cultivate drug plantations, and extort community members and businesses.

Read the rest at InSight Crime

Related: Ardillos Continue Terrorizing Indigenous Communities of Guerrero, Mexico (InSight Crime)

Related: Traditional Mixtec Natural Dyers and Weavers Say They’re Optimistic for a Brighter Future (Mexico News Daily)

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