By “El Huaso” for Borderland Beat
Last weekend, criminals dropped over 40 explosives from commercial drones above five communities in the municipality of Petatlán, Guerrero. The damage to homes and farmland forced many civilians in the community to flee the region.
At least 40 homes were damaged and 250 hectares of farmland were burned, according to Proceso. People were forced to flee from the communities of El Anono, El Limón, Casas Viejas, El Mameyal and la Finca after the attacks started on Saturday and continued Sunday, the 23rd and 24th of March.
Locals have denounced the lack of government presence in the region.
On March 25, locals from this region located and detained a young man who was lost in the hilly countryside. They found the 22-year-old, allegedly a member of La Familia Michoacána in possession of an AK-47, explosives and drones, reported local news. He admitted to participating in massacres on the payroll of La Familia Michoacána, and being paid 14,000 pesos (840 USD) a month.
According to locals, these sort of attacks have been occurring for the past year, around when local crime groups Los Arreola and Los Maldonado began fighting La Familia Michoacána for control of this region.
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| Images from Proceso. |
A similar spate of attacks was reported two weeks prior in El Porvenir, a community 20 miles to the east.
As of 2022, there are currently 386k internally displaced people in Mexico according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), an NGO who track the number of civilians forced to leave their homes due to violence or other disasters. This figure has grown every year since the IDMC began tracking in 2008.
Reporting via Proceso.