More than 500 people from southern Mexico have fled to neighboring Guatemala this week amid armed clashes between criminal groups fighting for control over drug trafficking routes and committing other crimes, the authorities of both countries said yesterday, Reuters reported, quoted by BTA.
Mass displacement due to drug cartel violence began earlier this week, with men, women, children and the elderly seeking refuge in the town of Quilco, bordering the Mexican state of Chiapas, the Guatemalan Migration Institute said.
"These are families who are being forcibly displaced in Guatemala because of the violence that has gripped the southern part of the neighboring country," the institute said in a statement.
Criminal gangs are responsible for at least 19 cases of violent death in recent days.