Drug gang attacks force hundreds of Indigenous families to flee' in Mexico

"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 Gonzalez Garcia, 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."

"They were attacking us with drones and with .50 high calibre weapons, that's why I left and took my twin sons with me, a woman said in a Facebook video posted by another Indigenous rights group. They killed the animals and now they're setting fire to the hillsides. A video shared with the Guardian from the village of Alcozacan showed gunfire and explosions continuing on Monday morning."

"The use of bomb-carrying drones and other powerful and sophisticated weaponry by Mexico's drug cartels has become increasingly common. As violence has intensified, many poor and rural communities have been forced to flee their homes and seek safety elsewhere. A recent study from Mexico's Ibero University found that the number of people forcibly displaced by violence more than doubled between 2023 and 2024, from 12,600 to 28,900. There were nearly 400,000 displaced people in Mexico as of the end of 2024, according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre."

Hundreds of Indigenous families in central Mexico’s Guerrero state fled their mountain homes after intensified attacks by the criminal group Los Ardillos. Drone bombings and heavy gunfire struck villages for hours, including an eight-hour bombing on Saturday. Between 800 and 1,000 families were forced to move to other towns, with at least four deaths reported. Survivors described terror, especially among women and children, and shared videos showing people hiding in a church while explosions and gunfire continued. Reports also described animals being killed and hillsides set on fire. Violence linked to drug cartels has increasingly used bomb-carrying drones and sophisticated weapons, contributing to rising forced displacement across Mexico.

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