Since 2020, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), along with its affiliate the Chiapas and Guatemala Cartel (CCyG), has established a presence on the Chiapas-Guatemala border, particularly at the clandestine crossing of Santa Teresa Llano Grande (Mexico)-Guailá (Guatemala), a corridor of five towns stretching 5.5 kilometers.
In recent years, the CJNG has controlled hundreds of communities in the mountains up to the border with Oaxaca, an area it seized from the Sinaloa Cartel, taking advantage of their internal power struggle, according to various security reports.
Between 1,000 and 1,500 private vehicles, trucks, and trailers cross this corridor daily, carrying corn, coffee, cement, auto parts, new motorcycles, cattle, pigs, clothing, weapons, drugs, and migrants. The fees for transporting groceries and used clothing, among other products, ranged from 50 to 500 pesos, but for trucks loaded with new motorcycles or auto parts, the fee exceeded 20,000 pesos.
Former PRI mayor Irán Mérida Matamoros (2008-2010), kidnapped on December 14, 2023, described [in a video recorded by his captors and released in April 2024] how the residents of Frontera Comalapa lived in fear. “We live in anxiety, in fear. The cartel is run by Bladimir López Orantes and Antonio [Martínez]; they are the ones who extort protection money from all the merchants. They demand a fee of 20,000 pesos and force all the taxi drivers, truckers, and market vendors to block the road when the Army tries to enter [the town center],” he stated in the recording, which was the last thing heard from him.
