Carlos González, of the National Indigenous Congress, envisages three scenarios: that the state protects them and dismantles the criminal groups; that the communities are massacred; or that they rise up.
*A couple weeks ago, we published a summary of this conversation, but the full interview exposes critical details about the patterns in violence that plagues the Mexican countryside.
Carlos González García is a member of the National Indigenous Congress (CNI), a lawyer specializing in agrarian law, and, above all, a defender of the land and a supporter of communities in resistance. In this interview, he explains the current onslaught by organized crime against Indigenous peoples. He discusses the recent attacks in Guerrero and Michoacán, and the macroeconomic interests behind them. He warns that the United States’ hostility toward the world’s peoples is accelerating this war. And he envisions three possible scenarios: that the state protects the communities and dismantles the criminal groups; that the communities are massacred; or that they rise up.
Below is the full interview.
-In recent times—but most notably in the last few weeks—various attacks on indigenous communities in Mexico have increased and intensified. To what do you attribute this? In what context are these attacks taking place?
–The attacks on communities in recent weeks have been extremely brutal, in some cases unlike anything seen before. We have the specific case of the Indigenous communities in the municipality of Chilapa, which are affiliated with the Indigenous and Popular Council of Guerrero-Emiliano Zapata (CIPOG-EZ) and the Regional Coordinating Committee of Community Authorities and Community Police of the Founding Peoples—communities that have not aligned themselves with the Los Ardillos cartel or any other cartel in the past. And also against communities in the municipalities of Atlixtac and Olinalá.
There is a widespread war in the Montaña Baja and Montaña Alta regions of Guerrero against communities that have refused to be controlled by organized crime. In addition to these attacks, there are those taking place in Michoacán. In the community of Santa María Ostula, there have also been very severe, excessively violent attacks in recent days. A group of approximately 50 hitmen—apparently mostly Colombians—who claim to be members of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, carried out a raid.
As on other occasions, this attack came from the direction of the Cofradía de Ostula, which is located in the northern part of the region, furthest from the coast. The attackers arrive from the Colima side, through the municipalities of Chinicuila and Coalcomán, which are controlled by the cartel.
In addition to these attacks, there have also been others in Purépecha communities in La Cañada and La Sierra, specifically in Acachuén and La Cañada de los Once Pueblos. The municipal police have colluded with the hitmen and are protecting them. Another major attack targeted the community of Santa María Sevina, in the municipality of Nahuatzen; here, too, there are reports of the presence of hitmen of Colombian origin. There, two members of the Community Patrol were murdered.
In addition, there have been other skirmishes or crossfire in other parts of the plateau and in other parts of Guerrero, where mutilated bodies and executed individuals have been found. I believe these have been the most vicious attacks on indigenous communities, but they are not the only ones, and they are not all of the same nature. There is severe harassment of communities in other regions of the country as well.
–What interests are behind these attacks?
–This wave of violent attacks is driven by economic interests outside the communities, primarily mining. In the case of the Montaña region of Guerrero, there are significant deposits of gold and other minerals, and mining projects are currently underway, such as the Media Luna project. There are 24 mining concessions between the Montaña and the Costa Chica regions of Guerrero. We believe this is a key factor driving the attacks, because their goal is to displace communities from their territories so that the land can be reoccupied and reorganized.
We see this type of process in Guerrero, Michoacán, and Chiapas. In Ostula, this has not been possible—although they have been trying for years, and more violently since 2024—because the Community Guard has managed to hold its ground in the highlands. However, they are doing something that should be the responsibility of the Mexican government: dismantling these cartels and protecting the civilian population.
In Ostula and throughout the region, we face the same situation: massive mining and real estate interests. In the case of the Purépecha Plateau, there are also significant interests, such as timber and avocados. In all the communities where these attacks and violent conflicts occur—and where the presence of criminal cartels is almost unstoppable—there are natural resources, disputed territories, and projects seeking to establish themselves.
–There are also attacks on communities that aren’t necessarily armed.
–Indeed, not everywhere sees attacks involving drones, explosives, or those that cause mass displacement of populations, but there are certainly instances of harassment and repression. This is the case with the landfills in the state of Puebla, the water dispute in Querétaro, and in the central part of the country—it’s a widespread phenomenon.
–In the regions you mention, there have been organized communities for decades.
–For us, it is by no means a coincidence that communities that have historically resisted are being targeted. Most of the communities under attack have community security systems, community guards, community police, and neighborhood watch groups. This means that when attacks occur, there will be a reaction, a response, and we believe that is precisely what is being sought: to exacerbate the conditions of violence and instability in the country’s Indigenous regions. Furthermore, we believe that this is exactly what U.S. security and intelligence agencies are seeking.
It is striking how, in the past few weeks, these attacks have intensified and become extremely violent. The way the communities of Xicotlán, Tula, Acahuehuetlán, and Alcozacán were attacked—with drones and bombs—while not the first such attacks (those occurred in Ostula in 2024), we believe these are the most violent.
The community of Tula is practically destroyed. Its houses are destroyed and burned; the town is completely abandoned. This is something that hasn’t been seen in the Mountain region or in indigenous regions for quite some time, at least in the central and southern parts of the country.
–What is the role of the state in this situation? Negligence? Complicity? A hands-off approach?
–Those involved in this complicity and these failures to act include various institutions and officials, to varying degrees. We should talk about individuals—local officials who are embedded in and form part of organized crime. That is what the people say in the regions where these officials govern. In Guerrero, this complicity is very widespread; several municipalities in the central region and the Montaña are governed by mayors who were installed by Los Ardillos.
A particularly paradigmatic case is that of Mercedes Carballo Chino, the mayor of Chilapa, who is the sister-in-law of Celso Ortega, the “Ardillo Mayor,” the cartel’s leader. Or take the case of her nephew, who is a state congressman, or her brother Jaime, who is a PRD leader and has served as president of the state legislature, as well as having been mayor twice and a state congressman twice.
Guerrero is the state with the greatest fragmentation and the strongest presence of criminal cartels. The DEA reports 14 cartels and more than 400 cells operating across all regions of the state. But Michoacán is not far behind, not to mention the violence suffered by San Lorenzo Azqueltán or the widespread criminal presence in the Sierra Wixárika. But in the case of Michoacán, there is also talk of the complicity of mayors, as well as of the governor and his family being linked to the Jalisco Cartel.
We see this first element of complicity, collusion, and infiltration within Mexican state institutions. It is no coincidence to us that on May 6, the army and the National Guard withdrew from the three interagency operational bases they had on the outskirts of Tula, and that starting that day, Los Ardillos began their attacks using drones and high-powered weapons.
From our perspective, this is inexplicable, and we believe it must be investigated. We need to find out why they withdrew, who ordered it, and which commanders were involved.
We’re talking about shared identity among criminals and government officials. In a second case, we’re talking about the infiltration of institutions, and finally, moving from the most complex to the least, we have the case of negligence. Why did it take the federal military and security forces so many days to enter the bombed communities? Why did they do so by stating that they were going to engage in dialogue with the criminals instead of immediately entering to protect the populations and dismantle the Los Ardillos cartel?
The pressure we exerted was immense. National and international society exerted significant pressure, as did the media and social media. All of this forced the Office of the President to take action, send high-level officials to the affected region, and provide a security presence on the ground—though this remains insufficient. The Observation Mission had been promised an escort, but it wasn’t provided until the mission arrived in Alcozacán.
–It’s not just in Mexico that the indigenous population is under attack. It seems there’s a global strategy…
–The long-standing processes of dispossession that have intensified in recent years and months—and which constitute what we have called a war—intersect with the virulence with which the United States, its leaders, and its president are acting around the world, in Latin America, and in Mexico, under that same logic. This is not a separate chapter in the war of conquest; it is the harshest and most recent chapter. It is the United States’ virulence toward the peoples of the world that is accelerating this war.
–Given this complex and alarming landscape, what scenario do you foresee?
–There are three possibilities. The first, which is what we hope for, is that the government will act and provide support to the attacked communities in the way they request, because often the support they provide is invasive—they arrive in the towns, occupy public spaces, and become a new factor driving population displacement rather than offering support. What all the affected communities are asking for is the establishment of inter-institutional operational bases at specific locations within the affected areas.
In Ostula, there have been repeated calls since February 2024 to establish a base in a town in Chinicuila—not within the communal territory, but in an area that is essentially a ghost town because its population was displaced several years ago due to criminal activity. From there, it is possible to block the entry of armed criminal groups into the Nahua coast of Michoacán.
In the case of Guerrero, and specifically CIPOG-EZ, there are calls for the establishment of three operational bases at three specific locations: the Crucero del Jagüey, the cemetery across from the town of Tula, and the entrance to Joaquín Herrera. Now, with Sunday’s latest statement, they have increased this to five bases, and the same applies to Sevina. Santa María Sevina has long been demanding the establishment of an operational base at the location they deem appropriate.
The two other scenarios are a massacre of the communities or an uprising. If the communities are not given guarantees for the protection of their lives, physical integrity, and fundamental rights, this is the path they are left with. These are two possibilities, both of them terrible, which would result in loss of life, suffering, and further displacement—but which could very well occur.
We don’t want them to happen; we don’t want it to come to that, because they could fuel the intensified offensive by the U.S. government and its national security and intelligence agencies around the world, in the Americas, and in our country.
Mexico is facing a threat, just like Gaza, just like the threats against Cuba. And we discuss each one in terms of its specific nature and scale, but not to downplay what is happening here. We say that Iran is at war, that Gaza is being massacred, that the Middle East is a war zone; sometimes we talk about Colombia, but Mexico is in the midst of a very violent war that is causing a large number of people to go missing—a number that grows day by day—without any solution from the state, and with a considerable number of intentional homicides among the civilian population. Criminal cartels control a large part of the country; the political class is in collusion with criminals; and a large number of municipalities are controlled by the cartels. We are in a situation no different from that experienced in other countries at war.
The communities are desperately insisting that their voices be heard, that their concerns be addressed, that the government take action to dismantle the cartels and punish those who must be punished, protect civilian populations, and ensure the proper functioning of community police forces.
Original interview with Gloria Muñóz Ramírez of Desinformémonos published in Ojarasca Supplement No. 350 of La Jornada in June of 2026.
Translation by Schools for Chiapas.