EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – Two recent mass-casualty events illustrate the year-old feud between two Mexican drug cartels for control of the Guatemalan border that continues to claim lives and endanger migrants on their way to the U.S.
On Sunday, members of a group calling itself Cartel de Chiapas y Guatemala (CCYG) tore into a farming community near the town of La Concordia. Mexico’s Ministry of Public Safety on Wednesday said five people were shot dead and 21 vehicles torched.
Hours later, the gunmen fired at Mexican National Guard troops at a second site near the town. The shootout left five gunmen dead and resulted in the arrest of 13 Guatemalan nationals, the ministry said. Twenty-one AK-47-style rifles were seized.
A day earlier, the neighboring Oaxaca Attorney General’s Office confirmed the drowning of eight Chinese nationals who placed their lives in the hands of smugglers to avoid apprehension in Chiapas. The bodies of seven women and one man washed up on a beach called Playa Vicente.
Scott Stewart, vice president of intelligence for TorchStone, a global security firm, said two major drug cartels are at war for control of drug routes, migrant smuggling, extortion, and other illicit activities at Mexico’s “other border.”
“It’s been going on for well over a year. Los Chapitos faction of the Sinaloa cartel is basically at war with Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) and the Chiapas guys – which I think are CJNG, just with a different branding,” Stewart told Border Report. “It’s key terrain because of its proximity to Guatemala for trafficking of narcotics and also people.”
This war has intensified in part due to the massive flow of migrants coming into Mexico. “It’s not just South Americans and Central Americas. We are seeing Chinese, we are seeing Central Asians, we are seeing Africans – everybody is coming through now,” he said.
Once the cartel arrives, nobody is safe. The criminals begin extorting not just the migrants but also local businesspeople and threatening extreme violence.
“If somebody is not playing ball with them, they’ll exact a harsh revenge. If it’s a migrant smuggler, they may take (your migrants), they may kill your people to put you out of business,” Stewart said. “It puts the business owners and farmers in a bad position. If one cartel comes in and makes extortion demands, they’ll attack you if you don’t pay, but if you pay you might be attacked by the other cartel because you’re supporting their rival.”
The cartel war also places the Mexican government and local authorities in a difficult position: If they don’t act, they’re said to be getting paid off; if they do, they’re accused of human rights abuses.
“Twenty-five people were murdered in La Concordia, according to testimonies, in a fight between a criminal group and the National Guard. Civilians who were waiting for a ferry to get across a reservoir were caught in the crossfire,” the Fray Bartolome Human Rights Center said in a statement appearing to accuse the government of hiding civilian deaths.
The president of Mexico earlier this week stood by the official account.
“That group is talking about 20, 25. That’s not true. It was five in one event and five in another. I don’t know where they are coming up with that number,” President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Wednesday.
In a video released on social media, the CCYG accused Mexican officials of being on their rivals’ payroll and disavowed any ties with the Jalisco cartel.
Stewart said it’s hard to expect truthful statements from cartel members. Last October, for instance, Los Chapitos faction of the Sinaloa cartel (CDS) hung banners stating they had renounced trafficking fentanyl into the U.S. and threatened to kill any gang member that trafficked in fentanyl. Today, not only fentanyl but, according to Stewart, also the more potent and deadly carfentanyl continues to flow north through Tijuana, a CDS zone of influence.
Those drugs contributed to the record number of overdose deaths in the U.S. last year. As for the cartels’ involvement in migrant trafficking, Stewart said only the criminal groups know what percentage of their income is now derived from people smuggling and extortion of foreign nationals in transit through Mexico.
“With the flows we see and with people forced to camp (in Mexico) for longer periods, it gives the criminals a longer period to victimize them. It seems it has increased their capability to kidnap them, shake them down and hold on to them,” the international security expert said.