translated from Spanish: After further attack, authorities promise security in Sierra de Guerrero

The inhabitants of the towns of Carrizal and Naranjo, in the Sierra de Guerrero, reported on Saturday, December 28, armed attacks in these communities, which left a 17-year-old man dead and dozens of forced displacements.
The two villages that were targeted by the attacks are located in a region of the Sierra de Guerrero whose communities, around 100, are targeted by armed raids, for disputes between groups of suspected members of organized crime, which have led to forced displacement since November 11, 2018.
The last episode of violence was experienced last Saturday when the inhabitants of Carrizal and Naranjo were shot by a criminal group linked to alleged drug trafficking activities in the region.
Read more: Displaced from Guerrero denounce armed group advance for government default
Manuel Olivares, director of the Regional Center for Human Rights José María Morelos y Pavón (Centro Morelos), an organization that has accompanied the displaced people of the Sierra de Guerrero who left their communities on November 11, 2018, reported that the attack was recorded around 8 a.m.
Although the group responsible has not been identified, it is known that there is a fight between bands of suspected criminals to control this area of the mountains, where drugs, weapons are trafficked and where mining has grown.
On 11 November 2018, thousands of people (at least 1,600) left their communities in the municipality of Leonardo Bravo, Guerrero, in the face of the arrival of armed groups that perpetrated shootings and drove people to flee to keep control of the sites.
In the face of this Saturday’s attack, the villagers of the two communities, where a 17-year-old boy was killed, sought help on social media and 911, but it was until 1:30 p.m., to say Olivares, that members of the state, army and national guard, arrived at the site, who after a few hours tried to retreat.
Read: Members of the Union of Warrior Peoples retain elements of the National Guard in Tecoanapa
Around 7 p.m., about 100 displaced people from various communities in the Sierra who have been taking refuge in Chichihualco, the municipal headquarters of Leonardo Bravo, gathered to block the passage of federal and state troops who have retreated from the area aboard 40 vans.
With cardboards, in which they called for safety, the villagers were placed on the road, where they parked a vehicle to prevent the passage of the 40 police and military units. The displaced wanted them to stay in the area where the attack occurred.
Then came the repression. “They shook us, beat us, my partner Teodomira was thrown to the ground and pointed at him with a gun. At various points, the troops cut cartridge in front of us, who only asked them to stay in the area to provide a security that we have been requesting for months,” Manuel Olivares said.
The troops eventually withdrew from the scene, but activists reported in addition to the beatings and threats, theft of cell phones, computer equipment and damage to a pickup truck owned by the Morelos Center.
Meet with authority
The displaced people who tried to prevent the departure of police and military last Saturday, are part of the group of about 400 people who were on the seeding outside the National Palace, for 39 days (between February and March 2019), in demand, among other things, of a strategy to deactivate these groups and achieve the pacification of the area.
This Monday, December 30, two days after the last armed attack, a group went to the CDMX to meet with an official of the Federal Ministry of Security and Citizen Protection and discuss the effects of violence in the Sierra de Guerrero.
The person in charge of talking to them was Miguel Angel Urrutia Lozano, head of the Crime Prevention and Combating Unit.
The official promised that they will sit down with them to devise, together, a security strategy for the retreat of these armed groups.
“This and the repression that we all suffered had to happen so that we would finally be welcomed into the Secretariat of Security,” Olivares said.
About the timing of future meetings, Olivares said they agreed that “in the next year we will talk on the phone to set dates for meetings in which the new security strategy for the Sierra de Guerrero will be designed.”
The activist noted that Urrutía Lozano mentioned to them that there is already a strategy for the area and that it has been developing, proof of this are the various stops that have already been made, he told them.
“We told him that it is not enough, as evidenced by the facts of the Sabbath,” Olivares said.
Animal Político requested an interview with both the Ministry of Security and Citizen Protection and the Secretary of Government of Guerrero to know what has been done to contain these groups and what will be done from the last attacks on Saturday, but until the close of this edition there was no response.
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Original source in Spanish