Ángeles Máriscal interviews terrified residents in the region where the Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation Cartels clash. Those fleeing leave everything behind. And those who stay are conscripted into the service of the cartels.
The Pueblo Creyente organization of the municipality of Chicomuselo, Chiapas, denounced that pastoral agents and servants of the local parish were detained by members of the group El Maíz, social base of the Jalisco Cartel New Generation (CJNG).
As part of their strategy, the drug cartels have intensified the forced recruitment of the population. According to testimonies from family members, people are being forced to demonstrate on the highways, to lead marches in support of one group or another, or to serve as hired assassins. They are forced to participate as human shields and soldiers in the war between Mexican cartels for control of the country’s southern border. They have been unable to leave the area for two weeks. On Saturday, September 23, a line of men and women were forced to stand in two lines on the …
More than 280,000 inhabitants of the border area of Chiapas trapped between drug cartels READ MORE »
Battles between cartels and their splinter groups hold thousands hostage as roadblocks prevent the movement of food, fuel and basic goods. Schools are closed. According to state and national organizations, “the Sierra Madre region and the southern border between Chiapas and Guatemala is on fire. The negligence of the authorities increases the risk for the population in the face of constant armed confrontations, disappearances, forced recruitment and displacements…”
The San Javier crossing, on the Palenque-Trinitaria highway, is a strategic point in the ancient Desierto de la Soledad (Desert of Solitude). It is the crossroads of the communities that make up the Lacandon community: Frontera Corozal, Lacanjá and Nueva Palestina, where Choles, Lacandones and Tseltales live. As part of their strategy to take over the territory, a command unit of the Jalisco Cartel – New Generation (CJNG) took control of the place and began to charge right of way. Every vehicle crossing must pay a fee. The police were stripped of their uniforms.
