Collectives: Sending Army to Guerrero Won't Solve Violence Against Indigenous People
mexicosolidarity.com
“In 11 years we have documented at least 76 murders and 25 disappearances; while the Mexican State has shown an attitude of complete indifference towards the desperation of Indigenous peoples.”

This article by Lilian Hernández and Jessica Xantomila originally appeared in the May 13, 2026 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper.

The response given yesterday by the government of President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, to send the armed forces and public servants from the Ministry of the Interior (SG) to the Lower Mountain region of Guerrero, is “a media show ” that does not fundamentally solve the problem, said members of more than 20 collectives grouped in the Civil Observation Mission-Sixth, which documents violence and aggression against indigenous communities.

During a rally held yesterday in front of the Ministry of the Interior in the nation’s capital, participants stated that the action promoted by the federal government “is a lie,” because the authorities themselves have known for more than a decade that criminal groups want to take over all the land.

“There are attacks and violence; the State sends police, they take pictures and leave. We are very clear that after today (yesterday) the attacks will return and then what Sheinbaum says in her morning press conference that they have already resolved it, is a lie,” they warned.

Despite the rain that delayed the protest, attendees denounced that the violence suffered since May 6 in the Lower Mountain region of Guerrero is just another attack by the criminal group Los Ardillos, like others that members of the Indigenous and Popular Council of Guerrero-Emiliano Zapata (CIPOG-EZ) have already suffered.

Indigenous People Live Under a “policy of death”

After demanding that the federal government address the root of the problem, they stated that these Indigenous communities are living under a policy of death imposed by drug trafficking in the region. According to their figures, 81 people from the 24 communities of the CIPOG-EZ have already been murdered, and more than 25 have disappeared in the Lower Mountain region.

“The government also knows this, which is why it pretended to provide protection to human rights defenders, such as our CIPOG-EZ colleague, Jesús Plácido, and other activists, but in February they withdrew it,” they denounced.

They also complained that the Secretary of Security and Citizen Protection, Omar García Harfuch, claims that it is a conflict between criminal groups, but this is false, because there are not 96 displaced people, but more than 2,200 people who fled their communities in the Lower Mountain region.

“The criminals are not only Los Ardillos, but the entire structure that goes from the municipal presidencies to the state and local police, and we have no doubt that it reaches the general authorities, because it cannot be that they are seeing the death and say that nothing is happening,” they reproached in front of the federal agency.

Meanwhile, civil organizations demanded that the federal and Guerrero governments implement a protection and security operation in the Indigenous communities of the Montaña Baja region, belonging to the (CIPOG-EZ), harassed by Los Ardillos.

They also urged actions to search for and protect missing or detained persons; to investigate and punish those materially and intellectually responsible for the attacks; and to guarantee the life and integrity of displaced families, as well as a safe return for them.

The National Network All Rights for All, All and Todes, the Tlachinollan Mountain Human Rights Center and the Sixth Civil Observation Mission stated that the families reported that “the armed group murdered at least five people, burned homes, killed animals and sowed terror in the region.”

Siege Since 2015

Since 2015, these villages have been under siege by organized crime, which seeks to dismantle community organization and its Indigenous security and justice system.

“In 11 years we have documented at least 76 murders and 25 disappearances; while the Mexican State has shown an attitude of complete indifference towards the desperation of Indigenous peoples.”

Currently, they said that armed attacks have occurred in at least Tula, Acahuehuetlán and Xicotlán, and on May 9 the criminals entered Alcozacán, so they urged the “real presence” of the armed forces

The post Collectives: Sending Army to Guerrero Won’t Solve Violence Against Indigenous People appeared first on Mexico Solidarity Media.

From Mexico Solidarity Media via This RSS Feed.