Violence in Guerrero state has driven as many as 1,000 households from their homes, rights group says
Hundreds of Indigenous families have been forced to flee their homes in the mountains of central Mexico by intense attacks from a local criminal group, including drone bombings, an Indigenous rights organisation said on Monday.
A gang known as Los Ardillos has been carrying out attacks in Guerrero state for years, but they started to intensify last week. Villages were subjected to eight hours of bombings on Saturday, the National Indigenous Congress said, forcing between 800 to 1,000 families to flee to other towns.
“There is total anguish among the people,” said Carlos González García, a spokesperson for the congress, adding that at least four people had been killed. “The families are terrified, especially the women and children. It’s a level of violence that we’re not used to.”
Videos shared on social media showed women and children sobbing as they cowered inside a local church. In other footage, intense gunfire and explosions can be heard echoing across farmland and forests as smoke rises in the background.
