Current:Home > MyDrug cartel turf battles cut off towns in southern Mexico state of Chiapas, near Guatemala border-VaTradeCoin
Drug cartel turf battles cut off towns in southern Mexico state of Chiapas, near Guatemala border
View Date:2025-01-09 11:24:24
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Drug cartel turf battles cut off a series of towns in the southern Mexico state of Chiapas, near the Guatemala border, Mexico’s president acknowledged Monday.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said that the cartels have cut off electrical power in some towns, and forbidden government workers from coming in to the largely rural area to fix power lines.
He said the cartels were fighting for control of the drug smuggling routes that lead into southern Mexico from Central America. But the area around the town of Frontera Comalapa is also a valuable route for smuggling immigrants, thousands of who have clambered aboard trains to reach the U.S. border.
The local Roman Catholic Diocese said in a statement over the weekend that cartels were practicing forced recruitment among local residents, and had “taken over our territory,” blocking roads and causing shortages of basic goods.
López Obrador also appeared to lend credence to videos posted over the weekend, showing residents applauding about 20 pickup trucks full of armed Sinaloa cartel gunmen as they entered one Chiapas town. The president said the cartels might be forcing or bribing residents into acting as civilian supports, known in Mexico as “social bases.”
“On the side of the highway there are people apparently welcoming them,” López Obrador said of the video, which shows uniformed men aboard the trucks brandishing rifles and machine guns mounted on turrets. Voices in the video can be heard shouting phrases like “Pure Sinaloa people!”
The Sinaloa cartel is fighting the Jalisco New Generation cartel for control of the area, located in a rural, mountainous area north of the border city of Tapachula.
“These may be support bases, like those in some parts of the country, because they give them food packages, or out of fear, because they have threatened them,” the president said.
But López Obrador said the problem was a local, isolated issue that had been magnified and exploited by his political foes. “They may make a campaign out of Frontera Comalapa, but it won’t go far,” he said. “They are going to magnify everything they can.”
The Diocese of San Cristobal de las Casas said in a statement Saturday that there had been forced recruitment, along with extorsion, road blockades, kidnappings and killings.
“The drug cartels have taken over our territory, and we are under a state of siege, suffering widespread psychosis from narco blockades” that have prevented food and medical care from reaching the isolated towns.
López Obrador acknowledged that the gangs “cut off the electricity in some towns and have not allowed workers from the (state-owned) Federal Electricity Commission in to restore service.”
The area has long been the scene of a various shootouts, kidnappings and reports of widespread extortion by drug gangs in recent months.
In August, prosecutors said a half dozen men were killed in an apparent ambush in a township near Frontera Comalapa along a known migrant smuggling route.
veryGood! (191)
Related
- Volkswagen, Mazda, Honda, BMW, Porsche among 304k vehicles recalled: Check car recalls here
- Maine man who disappeared after driving wife to work found trapped in truck in New Hampshire woods
- Senators to meet with Zelenskyy on Thursday
- Travis Kelce Playfully Reacts to His NFL Family's Taylor Swift Puns
- In an AP interview, the next Los Angeles DA says he’ll go after low-level nonviolent crimes
- 50 Cent reunites with Eminem onstage in Detroit for 'Get Rich or Die Tryin' anniversary tour
- Fantasy football sizzlers, fizzlers: Return of Raheem Must-start
- UAW strike, first cases from Jan. 6 reach SCOTUS, Biden on economy: 5 Things podcast
- Lululemon, Disney partner for 34-piece collection and campaign: 'A dream collaboration'
- Maine man who disappeared after driving wife to work found trapped in truck in New Hampshire woods
Ranking
- ONA Community Introduce
- UN warns disease outbreak in Libya’s flooded east could spark ‘a second devastating crisis’
- UK Labour leader Keir Starmer says he’ll seek closer ties with the EU if he wins the next election
- Bioluminescent waves light up Southern California's coastal waters
- Halle Berry Rocks Sheer Dress She Wore to 2002 Oscars 22 Years Later
- A look at the prisoners Iran and US have identified previously in an exchange
- Halloweentown Costars Kimberly J. Brown and Daniel Kountz Tease Magical Wedding Plans
- '60 Minutes' producer Bill Owens revamps CBS News show with six 90-minute episodes this fall
Recommendation
-
Traveling to Las Vegas? Here Are the Best Black Friday Hotel Deals
-
'60 Minutes' producer Bill Owens revamps CBS News show with six 90-minute episodes this fall
-
All 9 juveniles who escaped from Pennsylvania detention center after riot recaptured, authorities say
-
In corrupt Libya, longtime warnings of the collapse of the Derna dams went unheeded
-
Stop smartphone distractions by creating a focus mode: Video tutorial
-
Authorities identify 2 California pilots who died in air racing event in Reno, Nevada
-
Billy Miller, 'Young and the Restless,' 'General Hospital' soap star, dies at 43
-
Colts rookie QB Anthony Richardson knocked out of game vs. Texans with concussion