The Indigenous and Popular Council of Guerrero–Emiliano Zapata (Cipog-Ez) denounced that—”with the complicity of all three levels of government”—the criminal group known as Los Ardillos attacked the Nahua communities of Xicotlán, Tula, and Acahuetlán yesterday, displacing more than 1,000 families. “Worst of all,” charged Jesús Plácido Valerio, a leader of the organization, “the armed offensives involving drones are continuing.”
He noted that precisely while these attacks on the villages were taking place, military personnel, members of the National Guard, and state and ministerial police officers withdrew from the area.
Consequently, “we hold all three levels of government responsible for colluding with Los Ardillos by permitting their incursions into the Nahua villages of the *Montaña Baja* region, as well as their attacks against members of Cipog-Ez and the Community Police of the Founding Peoples.”
In a statement issued yesterday, Cipog-Ez recounted that on the morning of May 6, in the community of Xicotlán (located within the municipality of Chilapa), “our brothers—Isaías Morales Lucas, Bernardino Hilario Ocotlán, Ernesto Hilario Ocotlán, and Isacar Villalba Rosario—were murdered; all were originally from the community of Tula.”
“Xicotlán—the village where they were killed—as well as Tula—their place of origin—are both affiliated with Cipog-Ez. Both communities have been under siege by this narco-paramilitary group—a group we have been denouncing for many years, yet one we know has been shielded by state, municipal, and federal governments,” they explained. The Indigenous Council recounted: “Our comrades arrived in the morning to carry out their masonry work when, suddenly, armed men in a white, armored pickup truck opened fire on them, taking their lives. They worked in construction and were part of the justice system of the Lower Mountain region of Guerrero; they served as community police officers for the Founding Peoples and for CIPOG-EZ.
The torture, dismemberments, disappearances, murders, and other attacks against the lives of our communities—perpetrated by the group known as Los Ardillos—led them to become defenders of life, land, and territory. In other words, beyond building houses, they were building a better world for our communities; they were also members of the National Indigenous Congress,” noted CIPOG-EZ.
The organization emphasized that the crime “was no coincidence; in 2022, they had killed Guillermo Hilario Morales—a CIPOG-EZ organizer and the uncle of the brothers Bernardino and Ernesto Hilario—who were the very men killed today, victims of the government’s incompetence, but also of its complicity.”
