Sierra de Guerrero: 6,000 Displaced, 1,600 Returning

Translated by Yaqui for Borderland beat from: ElSol and Milenio
              
                    Due to violence, thousands of people have fled the Sierra de Guerrero

About 1,600 displaced and 450 closed schools is the balance of last Sunday's clash between criminal groups and community guards in the town of Filo de Caballos, municipality of Heliodoro Castillo, in the Sierra de Guerrero.

Social organizations defending human rights asked the government and the State Congress to declare a humanitarian emergency.

Civil human rights organizations demanded that the government of Guerrero and the local Congress declare a humanitarian crisis in the entity before the forced displacement of thousands of families due to violence:

The director of the Regional Center We for Human Rights José María Morelos y Pavón, Manuel Olivares Hernández, reported that there would be more than 6,000 people displaced in the state, 2,000 in the municipality of Leonardo Bravo, 2,000 in different communities of the Sierra, around 800 families from the communities of Ahuihuiyuco, Tetitlan de la Lima and Tepozcuautla, belonging to the municipality of Chilapa; 17 families from Tlaltempanapa and 24 from Quetzalcoatlán de las Palmas, both located in Zitlala.

The director of the Morelos Center stressed that these are the most representative cases because of the massive displacement, however, I have stressed that many cases occur in anonymity, "families that do not stay longer in their homes without keeping a record of it".

He noted that the displacements occurred in municipalities of high violence in the Tierra Caliente region, such as San Miguel Totolapan and Arcelia, as well as the communities of the highlands that suffer from the confrontation of antagonistic groups of organized crime are not documented. 

"We could say that the number of people displaced by the violence in Guerrero is greater than that of the migrant caravan of Central Americans, but the government has tried to make them invisible," Olivares Hernández said. 

Therefore, together with the priest and activist José Filiberto Velázquez Florencio, I have demanded that the government of Guerrero and the local Congress declare a humanitarian crisis in the entity that the problem faced by the state and international organizations can be recognized. 

The activist, along with the director of the Minerva Bello Victims Rights Center, Jose Filiberto Velázquez Florencio, also requested an urgent hearing with Governor Hector Astudillo Flores, in which representatives of the displaced communities would participate in this problem. 

"Yesterday Astudillo said that violence in the mountains is a matter of national security", which Olivares Hernández considered is a demonstration of the inability of the state government. " 

"What happens here is that there is no political will to face the situation, the state government has allowed the growth of this problem and declaring itself incompetent is the only way out that has been left to the governor," he said.

The director of the Morelos Center demanded that the federal and state governments put an end to the operation of groups of armed civilians who assume themselves as community police, noting that the consent of the authorities has led to the proliferation of these expressions.  

A Narco State, A Narco Govt:

"It is not possible that there is a hail of bullets in front of the Army and the State Police, the problem is that there is a mixture, an interrelation, an interdependence between the authorities and organized crime, we live in a narco-state and in Mexico there is practically a narco-government, " he said. 

Ismael Cástulo Guzmán, mayor of the municipality of Leonardo Bravo, said that his demarcation has reached some 1,600 people who fled their communities because of the fear of shootings among the armed groups that are fighting over the territory.

For its part, the Secretary of State Education, José Luis González de la Vega Otero, confirmed that a total of 450 schools in Tlacotepec and its surrounding communities, suspended classes for the second consecutive day which affects 3,000 students.

The official said that a decision was taken to suspend classes for the second day in a row, but he assured that it will be evaluated if today teachers can upload to the communities, with the police surveillance assigned to them before these unfortunate events.

On the death toll, the State Attorney General (FGE) confirmed the finding of only two and not seven people without life in the town of Filo de Caballos, after the confrontation on last Sunday, Nov. 11

The spokesman for the Guerrero Coordination Group, Roberto Álvarez Heredia, said that on Monday, the State Police found at the bottom of a ravine a first body with shots, and yesterday morning they found a second lifeless body on the road that leads towards Corralitos.

It was reported that there is a presence of military personnel and the State Police in the towns of Filo de Caballos, Corralitos, La Laguna and Xochipala to shore up security.

1,680 displaced return to Sierra de Guerrero:

The migrants left on board 76 vehicles to the community of Filo de Caballos, after fleeing the violence generated by armed groups last week.

Sheltered by personnel of the State Police of Guerrero and the Army, around 1,680 people displaced by the violence of Filo de Caballos , and the surrounding area, left the municipal seat of Leonardo Bravo to return  to their communities. 

The caravan left the municipal auditorium around 11:30 am , after they met with envoys from the General Secretariat of Government and the Secretariat of National Defense. 

The inhabitants fled their communities because of the violence generated by armed groups, non-governmental organizations pointed out that around 6,000 people have been displaced by insecurity.