Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Friday thanked Guatemala for helping about 600 Mexicans who crossed into Guatemala to escape drug cartel violence, but also downplayed the violence that drove them there.
In his first comments since the refugees fled earlier this week, the president added that Mexico is a big country and, like many other parts of the world, “there are conflicts.”
“Our (political) opponents want to see our government unstable, violence rampant and our country being destroyed,” he said. The National Guard will be guarding the area and the situation will be resolved soon, he said.
The Guatemalan government reported that about 580 people — men, women, children and elderly — had fled violence in the Mexican state of Chiapas.
Families who crossed into the Guatemalan city of Quilco said they were forced to flee by gunfire and that drug cartels forced locals to work checkpoints, using them as human shields while they fought off rivals.
Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo said Wednesday that while there are still few signs of this, his government will coordinate a humanitarian response. Arevalo said his government is working with local authorities on the border to respond to Mexicans “fleeing fighting between groups on the Mexican side.”
Still, there have been plenty of responses from Mexico. Mexican officials did not respond to requests for comment on the situation by Friday.
Two of Mexico’s most powerful drug cartels, based in the northern states of Sinaloa and Jalisco, have been fighting for control of smuggling routes in southern Mexico for more than a year, causing large numbers of people to flee.
In June, armed men set fire to homes in the town of Tira and violence erupted in another part of Chiapas, forcing about 5,000 people to flee.
Mexico’s president acknowledged last September that drug cartels had cut off electricity to several towns in Chiapas state, near the border with Guatemala, and barred government workers from entering the largely rural area to repair power lines.
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