Central America Migrants Flee Turf Wars and Corrupt States for Refuge in Mexico Jo Tuckman - The Guardian
go to original December 31, 2013

Extreme violence in Central America is sending a surge of refugees fleeing north to Mexico where they are caught between official indifference and yet more danger if they continue to the United States, human rights activists say.

Activists in Tapachula describe a dramatic increase in the number of women and children arriving in southern Mexico this year. Though precise numbers are hard to come by, it seems clear that Mexico has not witnessed such a refugee flow since the 1980s when the region was beset by a series of vicious civil wars involving rightwing dictatorships and leftwing guerrillas.

"There is an undeclared civil war in Central America," said Father Flor Maria Rigoni, who runs a migrant shelter in Tapachula, near the border with Guatemala. "The refugees are coming, but the Mexican institutions aren't taking the problem seriously."

The violence behind today's exodus stems from turf wars between street gangs such as the M-18 and Mara Salvatrucha, the growing power of drug cartels and woefully weak and corrupt state institutions across the region.

Read the rest at The Guardian

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