The war waged by Los Ardillos against indigenous communities in Guerrero has left behind scenes of terror: children weeping as they listened to testimonies of violence, mothers hiding in the brush, and entire villages fleeing under a barrage of drone strikes and high-caliber gunfire.
Since May 6, 2026, a new offensive in the *Montaña Baja* (Lower Mountain) region has resulted in at least 76 murders and 25 disappearances, while indigenous organizations accuse the federal government of abandoning the region.
The Indigenous and Popular Council of Guerrero–Emiliano Zapata (CIPOG-EZ) stated it bluntly in a communiqué released on May 11 through the National Indigenous Congress (CNI): “They have helicopters, they have weapons, they have everything needed to enter, yet they continue to leave our communities alone while we are being killed.” Hours earlier, President Claudia Sheinbaum had stated during her daily morning press conference that the priority was to first “make contact with them [the communities] and see what is happening.”
More than 800 families have fled Tula, Xicotlán, Acahuehuetlán, and Alcozacán, all located within the municipality of Chilapa. At 12:30 PM on May 11—when Los Ardillos stormed into Alcozacán (where displaced persons from the other three communities had already taken refuge) amidst volleys of high-caliber gunfire and drone attacks—the Army was still nowhere to be seen.
CIPOG-EZ directly accused Celso, Bernardo, Jorge Iván, and Antonio Ortega Jiménez of being responsible for the violence. All four are sons of the founder of the “Los Ardillos” group, and for decades, the four have been building one of the most violent criminal empires in the state.
The CNI alleges that Los Ardillos operate under the protection of Governor Evelyn Salgado Pineda and in complicity with the Army. According to the organization, members of the criminal group have positioned themselves within close proximity to military installations without facing any intervention. The presence of the National Guard, the State Police, and the Mexican Army has served—in their words—“solely to theatrically simulate a supposed control of the region.”
