Ongoing battles between several crime groups over lucrative criminal economies like extortion have sparked a new wave of violence in Mexico’s southern state of Guerrero, highlighting the multitude of factors driving insecurity in this region.
Since the start of 2024, Chilpancingo and other municipalities like Taxco de Alarcón have seen an outbreak of murders directed primarily at bus and taxi drivers. During the first week of February, for example, public transport services were suspended in the state capital after gunmen killed six taxi drivers. A month earlier, two taxi drivers were killed in Acapulco while another bus driver was shot dead in Taxco de Alarcon, prompting transport workers to strike due to rising insecurity.
The state of Guerrero plays a strategic role for organized crime groups for several reasons, primarily related to drug trafficking and extortion. On the one hand, the state was long a hub for marijuana and puppy cultivation. It has also emerged as an epicenter for coca cultivation, the raw ingredient used to produce cocaine, which has expanded in recent years.
On the other hand, the state serves as a key transit point for drug shipments traveling north to the United States. It is also home to the Port of Acapulco, an area crime groups routinely exploit to receive cocaine shipments sent from South America on go-fast boats.
It is in this context that a growing number of crime groups are fighting to control different illicit economies, especially extortion. Ongoing tensions between the Familia Michoacana and the Tlacos, for example, as well as between the Tlacos and the Ardillos, have been blamed for the latest round of killings in the state.
However, a combination of factors, from the increased fragmentation of Guerrero’s criminal landscape, to criminal governance, and local corruption, are impacting the current violence.
Criminal Fragmentation
There are dozens of violent criminal networks operating across Guerrero today, in large part because of the atomization brought on by several high-profile arrests and killings of past crime bosses.
Some international observers, such as the International Crisis Group, estimate there are around 40 groups operating across the state, each vying for a piece of local criminal economies in different regions.
The majority of these groups were at one point local operators for larger transnational networks like the Zetas and Beltrán Leyva Organization (BLO). However, their power has grown since 2008 after the BLO was largely dismantled and the Zetas broke apart into several smaller factions that now operate primarily in the north of Mexico.
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Today, the Jalisco Cartel New Generation (Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generación – CJNG), Guerreros Unidos, Viagras, Rojos, Tlacos, Ardillos, Familia Michoacana, and Tequileros are among the main antagonists driving violence in Guerrero.
In the Tierra Caliente region – a hotly contested area spanning the states of Mexico, Michoacán, and Guerrero – there is reportedly an ongoing dispute between the Familia Michoacana and Tequileros, the latter of which was accused of massacring 20 people in San Miguel de Totolapán, including the local mayor, in October 2022.
And in the mountainous Costa Chica region, a longstanding rivalry between the Tlacos and Ardillos has led to upticks in violence on several different occasions, which has paralyzed local communities there and in Chilpancingo.
Illegal Economies Rooted in Criminal Governance
While drug trafficking and extortion are the primary criminal activities present in Guerrero, the former has become overshadowed by the latter and contributed to increased violence.
This southwestern state was once the cradle of marijuana and opium production in Mexico, but plant-based drugs have been almost entirely replaced by synthetic drugs like methamphetamine and fentanyl. This has forced small farmers to look for alternative crops while criminal groups diversified their portfolios beyond drug trafficking.
Extortion rackets now extend across a variety of public sectors in Guerrero, from transportation, to local businesses, tour guides, religious events, mining companies, and even small stores selling everyday items. At the same time, violence towards those working in these industries has also grown. Those who refuse to pay extortion fees or follow rules imposed by crime groups run an increased risk of being murdered.
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This system of extortion has allowed crime groups to exert a sort of criminal governance, which gives them power over several aspects of daily life in these local communities.
In 2022 for example, the price of chicken rose in the state capital due to a shortage in supply brought on by violence directed at vendors. And in Iguala, pressure from crime groups reportedly led to a drop in tortilla prices. These cases underscore how criminal groups are able to influence sales and the distribution of certain products using the threat of violence, all of which helps maintain their control in the community.
“It’s the regulation of daily life, of everything that a capital city can produce,” said an investigator and organized crime expert in Mexico, who requested anonymity for security reasons.
The Criminal-Political Nexus
Local corruption has long served to protect the operations of organized crime groups, but it has also emboldened crime groups to use targeted violence without fear of reprisals.
Fighting to secure access to local political power is just as important as controlling criminal economies like drug trafficking and extortion. With upcoming elections for the state legislature, city council, and different mayorships, the dozens of criminal networks present in Guerrero will likely try to secure future political capital, which could lead to further increases in violence.
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The state’s security forces are among the institutions most plagued by corruption. In January 2024, authorities blamed an ongoing feud between the Ardillos and Tlacos for the murder of seven people in Chilpancingo. However, one of those later implicated in the killing was identified as a high-ranking official in the Secretary of Public Security who also worked alongside state prosecutors.
This kind of alleged collusion between state forces and criminal actors not only facilitates criminal activity, but it obstructs official investigations of the violence and ensures crime groups can continue using violence with near total impunity.
At times, the nexus between politics and crime in Guerrero is put on display out in the open. In August 2023, for example, security cameras captured Chilpancingo Mayor Norma Otilia Hernández meeting with a leader of the Ardillos. Months earlier, local officials and community members blocked access to nine municipalities in the Tierra Caliente region to protest a state operation during which prosecutors seized two vehicles linked to leaders of the Familia Michoacana.
Featured Image: The Mexican Military patrols the streets of Taxco, Guerrero.