MEXICO / GUATEMALA: Troops are accused of torching the homes of dozens of families during a drug cartel hunt, forcing the residents to flee across the Mexican border

Record ID: 304059

  • Title: MEXICO / GUATEMALA: Troops are accused of torching the homes of dozens of families during a drug cartel hunt, forcing the residents to flee across the Mexican border
  • Date: 1st September 2011
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF DESTROYED HOUSES PEOPLE WALKING IN JUNGLE (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) NUEVA ESPERANZA RESIDENT, HENRY GABRIEL, SAYING: "We didn't have a choice because they started shooting at us. We had to find refuge with the Mexican people."
  • Embargoed: 16th September 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Mexico
  • Country: Mexico
  • Topics: Conflict,Defence / Military
  • Reuters ID: LVA45VYTB54B5VA2MCPEC7YHMZKL
  • Story Text: A Guatemalan town on the Mexican border gutted - its residents said on Tuesday (August 30) it happened at the hands of Guatemalan troops.
    The government suspended constitutional guarantees for 30 days in May following the massacre of 27 farmers.
    Troops and police raided several locations in the northern district of Peten to search and arrest suspects without first obtaining a warrant.
    Operations continued through the ensuing months and locals from Nueva Esperanza say the troops set fire to their homes during the raid on their town just last week.
    In a government statement released on Tuesday officials said locals had been "expelled" from the area for collaborating with drug traffickers.
    Around ninety families have now escaped across the border into Mexico, according to locals.
    Those left behind say they have no shelter and no food.
    "This is my home and I demanded that the Guatemalan government pay me for it because I don't have a home and my children are hungry - we have no clothes or food and we are suffering. We are living in the jungle. We don't have anywhere to live or anything to eat," one unnamed resident said.
    May's massacre of 27 farmers in the small town of Caserio La Bomba was one of the worst mass killings in the country in a generation.
    Many of the victims were shot and beheaded.
    Government officials blamed the killings on the Zetas, a feared Mexican drug cartel known to be growing in strength in northern Guatemala.
    Officials in Mexico say many Guatemalans are illegally crossing the border to escape the violence.
    "The violence started a month and a half ago. There have been decapitations. I think that the people are leaving because of the insecurity," Tenosique Mayor, Raul Gutierrez, said.
    Soldiers are now on guard in Nueva Esperanza and their are plans to set-up an armed operations center on the site.
    Residents say they are now living in makeshift shelters in the jungle on the Mexican border.
    "We didn't have a choice because they started shooting at us. We had to find refuge with the Mexican people," Nueva Esperanza resident, Henry Gabriel, said.
    The Zetas gang has a reputation for extreme brutality and has also been blamed for several massacres in Mexico.
    It is just one of a handful of Mexican cartels which have been extending their networks into Central America in a bid to control the supply chain that moves South American cocaine to markets in the United States.
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