Villagers clash with security forces in southern Mexico
Frontera Comalapa, Mexico, May 30 (EFE).- Some residents of this town near Mexico’s border with Guatemala clashed Tuesday with security forces trying to carry out operations against criminal groups.
More than 1,500 soldiers, National Guard members and Chiapas state police deployed along the border in a bid to break the power of gangs that have been terrorizing residents for the last two years.
In one village in the Frontera Comalapa municipality, residents armed with sticks, stones, and machetes blocked the main road to try to keep the police and soldiers out.
The security forces resorted to tear gas and managed to disperse the crowd in a matter of minutes, going on to establish control of the village.
But they encountered similar resistance in other villages.
Observers suggested that the mobilized residents were acting on behalf of one of the two drug-trafficking outfits that operate in the zone.
Human rights advocates say that since the start of 2022, the criminals have forced as many as 8,000 people out of their homes in the towns of Chicomuselo, Mazapa, and Frontera Comalapa.
One activist, Luis Abarca Gonzalez, told EFE that residents have complained about the situation to numerous federal bodies “without receiving a solid response.”
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