After five days of attacks—involving gunfire and explosives dropped from drones—by the narcoparamilitary group “Los Ardillos” against three villages in the municipality of Chilapa—attacks that have forced the displacement of at least 800 people—the Indigenous and Popular Council of Guerrero–Emiliano Zapata (CIPOG-EZ) declared: “This May 10th—Mother’s Day—there is nothing to celebrate. While politicians in the cities give speeches and hand out flowers, we—the Indigenous Nahua women of Tula, Xicotlán, and Acahuehuetlán—spent the night fleeing, carrying our sons and daughters as we ran to escape the gunfire and attacks.”
In a statement, the group recounted that “last night, many of our fellow women had to sleep hidden in the brush, terrified of being discovered by Los Ardillos; this is the reality that we, the Indigenous mothers of Guerrero, live through.”
“President Claudia Sheinbaum says, ‘We women have arrived’—but what good are her speeches when our children are crying in fear because of the drones? What good is it to speak of ‘transformation’ while we continue to bury our dead and search for our missing sons and daughters?” the group demanded.
CIPOG-EZ noted: “We have 76 fellow members—men and women—who have been murdered, and 25 who have gone missing in our communities. These are our sons, daughters, husbands, brothers, and sisters. Now, more than a thousand families have been displaced—and it is not just us; there are thousands of mothers across the country who are searching for and burying their children, and who are living this very reality.”
The world, the group underscored, “is watching how our Indigenous mothers are truly being treated. They believe that simply because we live far from the city—because we live in the mountains—our lives hold no value. That is the true face of this government, as well as of every government that came before it: nothing but contempt and death for our Indigenous peoples.” “We want no more empty words: we want justice for our mothers and our communities; we want to return to our homes and communities; we want to find our children; we want to sow our land and live a life of dignity,” he demanded.
He held the Mexican State responsible “for everything that happens in our communities; their hands are stained with blood for making pacts with criminals and handing over our communities and our lives. Claudia Sheinbaum, we do not want your World Cup; we want you to stop this war against our communities, and for our sons and daughters to be able to live in peace. That is what it means to honor mothers.”
Jesús Plácido Valerio, a leader of the CIPOG-EZ, denounced on Saturday that—with “the complicity of all three levels of government”—the criminal group known as “Los Ardillos” attacked the villages of Xicotlán, Tula, and Acahuetlán. “Worst of all,” he added, “the armed offensives involving drones are continuing.”
Since 2015, Los Ardillos have carried out incursions into the municipalities of Chilapa de Álvarez, Zitlala, and José Joaquín de Herrera—located in the *Montaña Baja* (Lower Mountain) region of Guerrero—leaving in their wake a trail of hundreds of crimes, including the killings of political party activists, kidnappings, extortion, and the forced displacement of residents.
Just this Saturday, at least 800 indigenous families were displaced by the violence, with authorities at all three levels of government failing to intervene to put an end to the situation. Los Ardillos are currently engaged in a conflict with the CIPOG-EZ and the Regional Coordinator of Community Police–Founding Peoples (CRAC-PF).
