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.”
Cartel feud at Mexico’s southern border placing migrants and civilians in jeopardy
Categories: Politics
The Fourth Estate 
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