Mexico City, Mexico – Guatemala’s government has stepped up measures to reinforce its border with Mexico after drug cartel violence has forced hundreds of Mexicans to flee south of the border into Guatemala.
Southeast Mexico has become a battleground for criminal groups bent on controlling the flow of drugs, weapons and people into the region, with Chiapas, a state on the edge of Mexico bordering Guatemala, seeing worsening violence in recent years. the last one.
However, while the Guatemalan government has redoubled efforts to protect its people from the violence concentrated north of the border, the Mexican government led by President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has played down reported violence in the south.
On August 13, Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo announced the addition of security checkpoints along the Guatemalan border following a sudden increase in Mexican immigrants entering the country.
“We are working side by side with the Ministry of Defense and the National Civil Police to prevent violence from reaching Guatemalan territory,” he said during a press conference.
On July 23, Guatemalan authorities reported a large influx of Mexican immigrants coming from Chiapas.
While reports on the numbers of Mexican nationals migrating to Guatemala have been conflicting, with President Arévalo reporting 300 people, Guatemala’s National Defense reporting 180, and Guatemala’s Disaster Reduction agency documenting 580, officials have revealed that up to 207 Mexicans humanitarian asylum was granted.
Meanwhile, on August 14, President López Obrador said that “about 200 people have crossed the border,” most of them from Amatenango, a municipality bordering Guatemala.
During the press conference, López Obrador dismissed the situation in Chiapas after reports of displacement caused by the violence, claiming he had “a different vision” and “different data”.
“I have another vision and I also have other information. Or, to put it colloquially, I have other data. We are dealing with the problem in Chiapas as in the whole country,” he said.
Although the president assures that Chiapas is the state with the greatest reduction in poverty, with 10% less than that recorded in 2018, it has also been subject to increasing violence stemming from the war between the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco Cartel – Generation New.
