Mexico City | Desinformémonos. The National Indigenous Congress (CNI) called for a Civil Observation Mission from May 22 to 24 in communities of the Montaña Baja region of Guerrero, following reports of the displacement of more than 2,000 members of the Indigenous and Popular Council of Guerrero – Emiliano Zapata (CIPOG-EZ) due to armed attacks attributed to the criminal group Los Ardillos.
In a statement, the CNI noted that the communities of Tula, Xicotlán, Acahuehuetlán, and Alcozacán have been under attack since May 6 with high-powered weapons and drones, forcing hundreds of families to flee their homes. The organization accused municipal, state, and federal authorities of downplaying the crisis and spreading the narrative that this is a clash between criminal groups, despite the fact that the attacks have directly affected the civilian population, including children and the elderly.
The CNI maintained that the government allowed the attacks by withdrawing security forces from checkpoints in the area and denounced alleged links between local authorities and Los Ardillos. It also criticized the fact that communities were pressured to return to their territories despite persistent fear and dangerous conditions, without any real guarantees of safety.
Given this situation, he called on journalists, human rights organizations, community groups, and national and international observers to join the mission to document the situation of displaced communities and shed light on the violence they face. He also held the federal, state, and municipal governments responsible for any acts of aggression or incidents that may occur during the visit to the region.
The full statement follows:
Call for a Civilian Observation Mission to the Communities Belonging to the CIPOG-EZ Who Have Been Displaced by the Criminal Violence of the Ardillos
In the Face of the State’s Contempt and the Complicity of Sheinbaurm, Evelyn Salgado and Mercedes Carvallo Chino, we call for solidarity and announce the visit of a civil observation mission to the displaced communities of Montaña Baja, Guerrero.
To the Emiliano Zapata Indigenous and Popular Council of Guerrero
To the Networks of Rebellion and Resistance
To Unsubmissive Europe
To national and international human rights organizations
To the media
To the people of Mexico
To the people of Guerrero
To those in the federal government and the state government of Guerrero who still possess a modicum of sensitivity, humanity, and common sense.
May 18th 2026.
After six days of attacks on the communities of the Montaña Baja region of Guerrero—Tula, Xicotlán, Acahuehuetán, and Alcozacán—which are part of CIPOG-EZ and the National Indigenous Congress, beginning on May 6, 2026, following international and national pressure from collectives, organizations, academics, and human rights centers, the Mexican government was forced to revise its narrative of “nothing is happening,” “there are only 76 displaced people,” “there are 96 displaced people,” “there are 200 displaced people,” shifting toward acknowledging a minor conflict, but framing it as a conflict between criminal groups.
The Mexican government responded to the attacked area only after more than 2,000 people had been forced to flee their communities, which were attacked with high-powered weapons and drones; it is clear that these attacks occurred because security forces allowed them to happen, and because local municipalities—particularly Chilapa, led by Mercedes Carballo Chino—failed to report the situation and instead gave cover to the attackers. We highlight the deplorable conduct of the Undersecretary of Political and Social Development, Francisco Rodríguez Cisneros, who consistently downplayed the attacks, engaged in dialogue with the attackers, and neither contained nor confronted the aggressors. He claimed he was detained on May 11 at the Crucero del Jagüey and did not reach the communities under attack. That same day, the federal government announced that it was already addressing the situation—the very same day that Alcozacán (with over 1,200 inhabitants) was under attack, a community to which the displaced people had fled and from which they were forced to flee into the mountains, caves, and ravines.
It is lamentable that the Mexican government insists on criminalizing the communities under attack, fabricating a narrative of “clashes between criminal groups” to explain the displacement of more than 2,000 people, the attacks with drones and high-powered weapons by the criminal group Los Ardillos against children and grandparents from the communities of Tula, Xicotlán, Acahuehuetlán, and Alcozacán. Even more absurd is Omar García Harfuch’s version, given that these communities—which, in addition to belonging to CIPOG-EZ, have also established their own justice system, the Regional Coordination of Community Authorities—Community Police – Founding Peoples, CRAC-PC-PF), have been requesting security, the establishment of checkpoints, and Joint Operations Bases—now Inter-institutional Operations Bases (BOI)—for over 10 years to prevent attacks by Los Ardillos. All we can observe is a criminal group shooting, murdering, kidnapping, trafficking, displacing people, refining their attacks, expanding their territory, and extorting the population; and most deplorable of all, we observe that this group is protected by municipal and state governments—and now by the federal government.
Can you explain why the army, National Guard, and state police disappeared from the checkpoint they had set up in Tula when the “Ardillos” began their attacks, allowing them to dig a trench 200 meters from the Inter-Agency Operations Base checkpoint and fire on the community of Tula from there?
Can you explain why there is no federal investigation into the actions of Chilapa Mayor Mercedes Carballo Chino, due to her family ties to Celso Ortega Jiménez, the top leader of the paramilitary group Los Ardillos, and the diversion of funds from Ramo 33 intended for communities—funds that have been denied to communities belonging to CIPOG-EZ—as well as the lack of investigations, dismantling, and arrests regarding the criminal group Los Ardillos? Is it not evident that there is a criminal structure extending from Los Ardillos—its most bloodthirsty and visible face—to the security forces, municipal and state police, the prosecutor’s office, and judges, continuing through the municipalities and the entire state political spectrum, and culminating in the commercial monopolies also controlled by the criminal group? We do not overlook the collusion of the upper echelons of the Catholic Church in Guerrero, led by the chancellor of the Diocese of Chilpancingo-Chilapa, Jorge Amando, who dared to say that the displaced people burned their own cars and homes, that they are displacing themselves, that the victims are not victims, and that they are victimizing themselves because they are no longer Catholic.
It is even more unbelievable that, despite knowing all this, the federal government continues to prop up the criminal structure. The Mexican State seeks to maintain its image of integrity and political correctness through lies and cover-ups; Guerrero is a clear example, where the state government and municipal governments are infiltrated by organized crime. When asked during her morning press conferences about the attacks on communities in the Montaña Baja region of Guerrero, Claudia Sheinbaum responds, “We are coordinating with the state government”; Evelyn Salgado responds, “We have already tasked the municipal governments,” and they reply that they are looking into it but that there will be no dialogue with organizations not recognized by the state (in a clear reference to CIPOG-EZ and CRAC-PC-Pueblos Fundadores, the only organizations that have safeguarded the lives of the communities), much less arrests and the dismantling of the criminal group Los Ardillos—Could it be that they are perhaps part of Los Ardillos?
The communities of the Lower Mountain region of Guerrero, have resisted handing over their territory for the criminal activities of the “ardillos” (drug trafficking, consumption, sale, cultivation, extortion, protection rackets, and kidnapping); they have created their own justice system and make decisions through assemblies; and they are strengthening their political process to avoid dependence on the political decisions of outsiders, whether political parties or criminal groups. That is why we know that the attacks on CIPOG-EZ and CRAC-PC-PF are aimed at destroying their aspirations to live with dignity and build a world where peace, justice, and freedom are not spoils administered by those in power, but a reality achieved by the peoples themselves; they are aimed at the appropriation of the territory, for while criminal groups view it as a commodity, the peoples unfold their existence, weave their dynamics and relationships, build their identities and worldviews, and care for and value the indissoluble relationship between the earth, the Territory, and all that exists within it.
Therefore we distance ourselves from the politics of the establishment, where people are accused of being right-wing, left-wing, centrist, or any combination thereof; of being supporters of the PRI-PAN alliance or communists; where Hernán Cortés is honored or where apologies are demanded from the Spanish for the conquest; where people are accused of being followers of Salinas (whether under Gortari or Pliego) or of López Obrador; of siding with the dictatorship or with the genocidal Trump-Netanyahu. Up there, where everyone forgets about the people. We, from the territories and from our humanity, clearly see the new war of conquest unfolding in the country, one that will only intensify. Today’s sacrifice zones include not only the land and the environment, but also the human beings who inhabit them. We are facing a war of extermination, destruction, and depopulation, which aims at reconstruction and repopulation under the rules of criminal, political, and business groups. It is clear to us that, as the brothers and sisters of the EZLN explained:
“Every bomb that falls on Gaza also falls on the capitals and major cities of the world—only they haven’t realized it yet. From the rubble will arise the horror of tomorrow’s war.”
In light of this situation, media outlets, journalists, organizations and groups, human rights centers, and national and international observers will be coming together to carry out a Civil Observation Mission to assess the current situation of the communities, the displaced, and the victims who have been treated with contempt by the Mexican government, which was not even capable of understanding the importance of language as a bridge between peoples. And so, Interior Secretary Rosa Isela Rodríguez went on and on and on, as if she were at a campaign rally. She went to claim that agreements had already been reached, without understanding the assembly-based process and without understanding that the issues run deep; without distinguishing between victims and perpetrators, in the end the victims were treated as perpetrators—they blocked the roads, they fired shots, they were displaced because they fired shots and blocked their own way—and what about the Ardillos? And the complicity of political and security authorities?
Therefore, the National Indigenous Congress, together with the organizations and collectives that make up the MCO-S, calls on all people of good will—those who are not indifferent to the suffering of others—to join this Civil Observation Mission from wherever they are and in whatever ways they choose. This MCO-S will take place from May 22 to 24 in the communities of the Montaña Baja region of Guerrero, where we will document the situation they have experienced and continue to face, as they were practically forced by the state and municipal governments to return to the communities from which they were displaced, despite the fact that fear persists and, above all, the risk of being attacked remains.
We hereby hold the federal, state, and municipal governments accountable for any situation that may befall those we will accompany on this Civil Observation Mission.
Sincerely,
NATIONAL INDIGENOUS CONGRESS
NEVER AGAIN A MEXICO WITHOUT US!
CIVIL OBSERVATION MISSION OF THE SIXTH
Original text published at Desinformémonos on May 19th, 2026.
Statement and call published by the CNI on May 18th, 2026.
Translation published by Schools for Chiapas.