Wave of violence in Guerrero exposes the ineffectiveness of the National Guard

On the last day of March, horror focused on one of the most violent municipalities in Guerrero. Chilapa (in the center east of the entity) woke up with a macabre scene: six heads placed in the awning of a van, several plastic bags with human remains and a drug mantra that warned that drugs, kidnappings, or floor charges are not allowed.

With the same modus, almost a week ago three were found beheaded in the region of Iguala and at the beginning of the month two were headless in the tourist jewel of Acapulco.

Guerrero, bordering the State of Mexico and Michoacán, is suffering from the surge of violence: the dispute between the criminal groups of Los Ardillos and Los Rojos, despite the deployment of the National Guard, a security force born in 2019 with the aim of controlling violence.

The agents patrol the entity, mainly the municipality of Chilapa, since January 2020, when 10 indigenous musicians were killed, abandoned on a rural road. The tragedy led to the integration of self-defense groups, including minors.

Since that date, on at least two occasions — in December 2021 and February 2022 — residents of Chilapa have confronted and disarmed soldiers to leave the region.

Violence in Guerrero dates back to July 2014, when members of Los Ardillos and Los Rojos faced bullets. Two months later, in September of that year, 43 students from the Ayotzinapa Normal School were reported missing.

The security in the following year was not better. In 2015, members of the Justice and Peace Community Police, linked to the Los Ardillos group, broke into the streets of Chilapa despite the presence of security elements. According to figures of enforced disappearance, at least 32 people were raised in the raid.

One of the largest operations in Guerrero — spanning from Chilapa to the neighboring municipality of Zitlala — was carried out in 2016, with the participation of 3,500 members of the Army, the extinct Federal Police, the Navy and the State Police.

In a report published by The International Crisis Group on the situation of violence in the state, it is reported that at least 40 groups are fighting for a diverse criminal portfolio with very high rates of impunity.

The proliferation of criminal organizations in the state dates back to the death of the Mexican kingpin, Arturo Beltrán Leyva in 2009, which caused a certain blow to the hornet's nest. Some of the old sequases of the Beltran Leyva leader left on the one hand, others on the other. That's where Los Rojos came from, then Los Chiefes.

The Squirrels, on the other hand, are a gang of kidnappers who have come to grow. Their first leader, Celso Ortega, was called The Squirrel. His son was a local deputy for the PRD.

The map of the location of criminal cells updated in January 2020 by the Ministry of Public Security, places the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel in the Sierra de Guerrero, where it has had clashes against members of the Michoacán Family.

Control of the territories is also disputed by gangs such as Los Viruses, Los Capuchinos, New People — the armed arm of the Sinaloa Cartel —, the Acapulco Independent Cartel (CIDA), and Guerreros Unidos.

According to the analysis of the International Crisis Group, the approach to security undertaken by the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador has been erratic, its programs to make the criminal world less attractive among young people have not worked, the National Guard remains an unfulfilled dream and the plans to clean up the federal forces are still on the air.

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