A new massacre rocked the state of Guerrero in the first days of January, in a remote mountainous region on the border between the Costa Grande and the Tierra Caliente. Father Filiberto Velázquez, director of the Minerva Bello Human Rights Center, sounded the alarm this Friday, denouncing the attack that allegedly took place on Thursday and the vulnerability of the residents of the area, which has been subject to a guerrilla war between two groups for months. These are, on the one hand, Los Tlacos and, on the other hand, La Familia Michoacana, which is said to be responsible for this latest attack.
In a statement released on Saturday afternoon, the organization points out that at least five people were killed in the attack, which is due to the number of skulls found at the scene in an area in the municipality of Buenavista de los Hurtado, in the municipality of Heliodoro Castillo. The priest pointed out that experts from the public prosecutor's office would only be on site this Saturday to at least try to clarify the matter. Vázquez said the criminals attacked a group of about 30 residents. In addition to the five dead, there are six injured people who fled the community and about 19 missing.
Burnt remains during the attack by armed groups in Buena Vista de los Hurtado, in the municipality of Heliodoro Castillo, Guerrero, on January 5, 2023. Photo: Courtesy of the Minerva Bello Human Rights Center
Several videos released on Friday show the aftermath of the attack, which appears to have been launched with bombs dropped on the city from drones. In two of the videos you can see a pile of bodies, some without heads, piled up in a truck at one of the scenes of the clash. In one of them, a man questions the alleged leader of the criminal group Los Tlacos, Onesimo Marquina alias Necho. “Just look, Necho. “Send me more assholes, dude.” The man speaking and his colleagues allegedly belong to La Familia Michoacana, which is fighting against Los Tlacos in the border area between the two groups' territories.
In videos taken this Saturday and already with authorities in the area, the same truck can be seen now burned, as well as the bodies piled on top. Father Velázquez also reported that the state government has committed to organizing search parties in the area to try to find the missing people. The Minerva Bello Center appreciated the efforts but pointed out the region's orographic difficulties, with hill ranges riddled with ditches and barriers plagued by the local population.
Parts of the State Police, in coordination with FGE, SEDENA and the National Guard, patrol the municipality of General Heliodoro Castillo on January 5, 2023. Government of Guerrero
Explosive drone tactics are common in the area. During a visit to several cities in the region last year, this newspaper was able to verify the number of perforated roofs and facades that were hit by shrapnel from the bombs. In the town of Nuevo Caracol, just a few kilometers from Buenavista de los Hurtado, one of the victims of the bombs, Araceli Santana, 40, recounted the day the bomb hit her garden. It was an August morning, around 9:30 am. Santana was preparing tortilla dough in his kitchen when an artifact fell from the sky, hit one of the zinc plates covering the patio and exploded. “You become deaf and you also get far,” explained the woman. “A boy got a piece of another bomb that fell on the field and cut his stomach open,” he added.
In Nuevo Caracol, as now in Buenavista, Los Tlacos, sometimes mixed with the local population, defend themselves against La Familia Michoacana, stationed in the surrounding hills, always with the threat of their drone team. If his responsibility is confirmed, this new massacre will be added to those he has carried out in recent years in Guerrero and the south of the state of Mexico, his areas of influence. In San Miguel Totolapan, a little further northwest, criminals from this group murdered 20 people at the end of 2022. Months later, the same group killed a group of residents in the neighboring town of Coyuca.
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