Insecurity in Guerrero: Displaced Persons Group Continues to Grow at Palacio National

Yaqui for Borderland Beat from: AnimalPolitico

On Tuesday a group of 56 displaced people from the state of Guerrero, 19 of them under the age of 14, joined the 300 people who were already in protest in front of the National Palace, for three weeks, waiting for President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to receive them and they can raise demands for their return to their communities or relocation. 

The newcomers are from the municipality of Heliodoro Castillo, from the communities of Pueblo Viejo, Vuelta del Sur and La Guitarra.

A year ago, they were forced out of their villages by the same armed group linked to several cartels that in November caused the displacements in Tlaltempanaca, municipality of Zitlala, and in eight communities of Leonardo Bravo, where the other 300 displaced people were then living in Mexico City.

"Those of Heliodoro Castillo have been out of their communities for more than a year. They have been looking for how to rent a house, how to make it to continue their life, but it is difficult, and the state government does not give them a solution, as it did not give it to us, that is why they came here to demand that they relocate them," he explained. Crescencio Pacheco, displaced from the community of Campo de Aviación, in Leonardo Bravo, is the spokesman for those affected.

The first group that arrived to settle outside of the National Palace since February 17, waiting for President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to give them an audience, re-affirms that even though the president said on March 4 during his morning conference that they were being treated, they have only been received by officials from the Undersecretariat of Human Rights, Migration and Population of the Ministry of the Interior (Segob), but they have not proposed a solution to their demands. 

Manuel Olivares, director of the Regional Center for Human Rights José María Morelos y Pavón (Centro Morelos), who provides accompaniment to those affected, said that on Thursday 7 they had a meeting with Neftalí Granados and Félix Santana, who were designated as liaisons to serve them .

"We presented a proposal for humanitarian assistance, which supposedly falls to this undersecretary.

The affected ones asked for help to pay for the rent of a house, for a family, while the government prepares the conditions so that they can return to their communities or be relocated ".

They also requested support to furnish the houses, to buy beds, chairs, and a monthly amount for food pantry. The displaced have reported that they had to flee their communities with very few belongings, and that their homes have been looted by the armed groups that took control of the Filo de Caballos-Casa Verde corridor, the gateway to the Sierra de Guerrero.

"The displaced have been left with nothing, without a home, without furniture, without work, so the demands presented to the government include those supports," Olivares said. However, he said, the response from the authorities is that there are no resources to cover the requirements.

The displaced are requesting 10,000 Pesos per month per family (around 80 families) to cover the costs of rent and food, while their situation is being normalized.

"The government does not want to take on  that expense, but they also do not prepare the conditions for the armed people who have taken the communities of the municipality of Leonardo Bravo to retreat and the displaced can return to their homes, and they also do not give solution to the Nahua Tlaltempanaca, municipality of Zitlala, who ask to be relocated, " denounced the activist of the Morelos Center.

Félix Santana, general director of Strategies for the Attention to Human Rights of the Segob, assured in an interview that the resources for pantry are guaranteed.

"What we see more complex is the payment of housing because that would imply a cost per month. In addition, we can not give privileged attention to one group of victims over others. The Mexican government has the responsibility of serving all the displaced persons of the country and for that, a comprehensive strategy is being prepared, but this is carried out through a long-term institutional design. Rebuilding the scenario is not going to be easy, it's been several years of decomposition. "

The official explained that they are in the diagnostic phase, locating areas and causes. The problem is very complex, he said, "Only in the case of Guerrero, the eventual return would go through the disarmament and pacification of the area. We have identified more than a dozen organized crime groups that coexist in that area and that makes the return complicated. "

Not a glass of water:

Three weeks after the first group arrived outside the National Palace, the displaced complain of lack of humanitarian support from the federal government.

"They have not given us a glass of water, or food, nothing. The only medical attention we have received is the visit of paramedics who come and check us. If someone is sick, they give you a prescription and you have to buy medicine. My wife was very ill with the flu and we had to go to the Similares pharmacy (a Generic Pharmacy) for the remedies, " said one of the displaced. "We are in very bad conditions -described another- worse than we were in Chichihualco, in the municipal capital of Leonardo Bravo where we went to take refuge, because there we were in an auditorium, we were able to bathe, here we had to put some plastic over ourselves and at least there we get to bathe when we get water."

Asked if it is true that they are not providing help to the displaced people who are in a sit-in outside the National Palace, Félix Santana affirmed that they have offered to offer all the humanitarian conditions if and when they are ready to return to Guerrero.

"The support will be given there, the attention is there. This government guarantees the right to protest, but we will not encourage it, because we believe that the problem has to be resolved comprehensively, in the states, and with the participation of state governments. "

Crescencio Pacheco, spokesman for the displaced, said that this Friday another group of 50 displaced from Guerrero could arrive and that displacement and violence will continue in that state if the federal government does not act soon to replicate the armed group that is removing the people from  their houses , which they use to  control of the zone of the mountain range and as far Chilpancingo.