Drug cartels’ turf war in Mexico’s Chiapas state sends villagers fleeing to Guatemala



A view of the empty town of Tila in Mexico’s Chiapas state on June 12. A wave of violence has forced residents to flee. (Isaac Guzman / Getty Images)

By Patrick J. McDonnell
Foreign Correspondent
Aug. 22, 2024 3 AM PT

CUILCO, Guatemala —

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The first signs of trouble came late last year, when gunmen began showing up in the hamlet — named México Nuevo — and setting up checkpoints on roads to shake people down for cash. Residents said that at least two young men were abducted at gunpoint from their beds and conscripted into a drug cartel.

Then late last month, after heavy shooting broke out nearby, most of the villagers trudged through the bush for two hours across the border to Guatemala.

They are among thousands of people displaced by an escalating turf war that has engulfed much of Mexico’s Chiapas state — known for its Indigenous cultures, spectacular nature, Maya ruins and picturesque colonial towns — in the sort of violence that has already convulsed so much of the country.

Rival criminal gangs are fighting for lucrative smuggling routes along the 400-mile frontier with Guatemala, a corridor for cocaine, arms and migrants.

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