Human Piñatas: Violence Resurges in the Sierras of Guerrero; Women and Children Fleeing

Yaqui for Borderland Beat from: La Jornada

             In Guerrero, adjustments of accounts and revenge between criminal groups continue.

Acapulco, Guerrero: The level of violence resulting from the clashes in Leonardo Bravo and Helidoro Castillo, municipalities disputed by the South Cartel and the Tlacotepec, in the Central region of Guerrero, reached one of its highest levels on Friday morning.

The same criminals broadcast videos through social networks during and after the confrontation. In one of them they warn that the dejected ones were hanging in the trees.

The Cartel del Sur is commanding by Isaac Navarrete Celis, "The Lord of the I", and the one of Tlacotepec, led by Juan Castillo Gómez, alias "El Teniente".

Both dispute the Xochipala - Tlacotepec corridor where several communities converge. VIDEO:

              

An unofficial balance of 13 dead and an undetermined number of wounded, led the clashes that have sustained in different points of the mountain area of ​​Filo de Caballos, municipality of Leonardo Bravo, members of the United Front of Community Police of the State of Guerrero against criminal groups linked to organized crime.

According to the reports that have been issued by residents of the communities of Filo de Caballos, Los Morros, Carrizal, Campo de Aviación and Tres Cruces, which are not endorsed by the authorities of the federal government or the state, these clashes between the two sides , have registered for the dispute over the territory, which has forced hundreds of families to leave their homes and seek refuge in Chichihualco again.

The incursion of armed civilians has occurred on board of double cabin and closed trucks, carrying tactical equipment and AK-47 assault rifles known as "cuerno de chivo" and AR-15, which have confronted the members of the United Front of Police Community of the State of Guerrero, with an alleged balance of deaths and injuries.

It was affirmed that the characteristic rattling of assault rifles and long gun bursts are constant, since Wednesday, intensified this Thursday afternoon and night, despite the torrential downpour that has intensified in this part of the Sierra de Guerrero, who woke up this Friday with a dense fog and a light drizzle.

Despite denying this information the authorities, both groups have broadcast videos about the results of these clashes, in one of them the community exhibited the body of a man they identified under the alias of "El Chaca", alleged leader of a group of hit men from the community of Izotepec, in which they affirm, that together with him they shot down five of their security group.

These same, they assure that 7 more of the same criminal group lost the life in another confrontation, which assured forced to fall back, taking with himself several wounded, penetrating in the mount, in zones of difficult access, even for the same inhabitants of this part the Sierras, for which a group of community members carry out their search in ravines and the wooded area.

It was said that this Friday there was a new confrontation against alleged assassins in the vicinity of the Pueblas Santos, who fled aboard a 4 x4 truck, in which they transport the wounded to try to save their lives.

While in a second video that spread through social networks, the members of the rival group, account for the murder of two people who hung from their feet to the branches of a tree, which they deprived of life with bursts of heavy gauge armament.

The spokesman for the Guerrero Coordination Group, Alvarez Heredia, acknowledged that he has these videos and shared them with the Guerrero Coordination Group, so that they can take action on the matter, but insisted that there is nothing official about there being 13 dead or injured, because no body has been found.

During the last weeks, human rights organizations have detected the increase of displaced people from their places of origin.

This morning, about 100 inhabitants of the community of Los Morros, the municipality of Leonardo Bravo, fled their homes again. They had barely returned on November 17, after clashes a week earlier.

Leonardo Bravo, Gro:  Nearly one hundred women, including minors, fled early yesterday due to the violence that persists in the town of Los Morros and other communities of Leonardo Bravo; After walking 10 hours they arrived at Chichihualco, the municipal seat.

One of the women, who requested anonymity, said: "that if the governor, PRI Hector Astudillo Flores,  does not solve the problem this week, we are going to plant ourselves in the government palace, to see what it feels like .

She denounced that the elements of the 50th Infantry Battalion of the Secretariat of National Defense stationed in the town of Los Morros  "do nothing, they only walk the streets, and now they are allied with those of the Tlacotepec Community Police ".

She explained that the one hundred women left at 4:00 am in Los Morros, and they had not eaten for hours, so they asked the state governor to address the problem of insecurity in that region of the Sierra Madre del Sur.

"Look, the children come without eating, they are not to blame for anything. We have not done anything. What have we done? Tell us, because we have nothing to do with these people"  (with the criminals) .

She recalled that last Wednesday there were shootings again, which started since the beginning of November. "The military is there and they do nothing. The children were frightened; but we do not know anything because we can not leave. Our husbands stayed in Los Morros defending the town because they want to take away our houses ".

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