A new massacre in Guerrero leaves at least five dead and points again to La Familia Michoacana

A new massacre has shaken the state of Guerrero in these first days of January, in an isolated region of the mountains, on the border between the Costa Grande and the Tierra Caliente. Father Filiberto Velázquez, director of the Minerva Bello Human Rights Center, sounded the alarm on Friday, denouncing the attack, which allegedly occurred on Thursday, and the vulnerability of the inhabitants of the area, who have been subjected to a guerrilla war between two criminal groups for months. These are Los Tlacos, on the one hand, and La Familia Michoacana, allegedly responsible for this latest attack.

In a statement released this Saturday afternoon, the organization points out that the attack has left at least five dead, it says that it responds to the number of skulls found at the scene of the events, a place in the community of Buenavista de los Hurtado, in the municipality of Heliodoro Castillo. The priest pointed out that just this Saturday experts from the Prosecutor's Office have arrived at the site, to try, at least, to settle the score. Vazquez has said the criminals attacked a group of about 30 villagers. In addition to the five dead, there are six wounded, who fled the community, and around 19 missing.

Charred remains during the attack by armed groups in Buena Vista de los Hurtado in the municipality of Heliodoro Castillo, Guerrero, on January 5, 2023.Courtesy of Minerva Bello Human Rights Center

Several videos released on Friday show the aftermath of the attack, apparently started with bombs dropped on the village from drones. Two of the videos show a pile of bodies, some headless, piled up in a pickup truck at one of the skirmish sites. In one of them, a man questions the alleged leader of the criminal group Los Tlacos, Onesimo Marquina, alias Necho. "Just look, Necho. Send me more assholes, dude." The man and his colleagues are allegedly part of La Familia Michoacana, which battles with the Tlacos in the border area between the two groups' areas.

In videos recorded this Saturday, already with authorities in the area, the same truck can be seen, now burned, as well as the bodies piled on top. Father Velázquez also reported that the state government has committed to organizing search brigades in the area to try to find the missing. The Minerva Bello Center has thanked the effort, although it has pointed out the orographic difficulties of the region, swarms of hills truffled with trenches and barriers made by the local population.

Elements of the state police, in coordination with FGE, SEDENA and National Guard, patrol the municipality of General Heliodoro Castillo on January 5, 2023.Government of Guerrero

The tactic of explosive drones is common in the area. On a visit last year to several villages in the region, this newspaper was able to verify the number of roofs pierced and facades hit by shrapnel from the bombs. In the town of Nuevo Caracol, a few miles from Buenavista de los Hurtado, one of the victims of the bombs, Araceli Santana, 40, recounted the day the bomb fell in her yard. It was an August morning, about 9:30 a.m. Santana was preparing tortilla dough in his kitchen when a device fell from the sky, hit one of the zinc sheets covering the patio, and exploded. "There's one left as deaf and they go far," the woman explained. "A boy got a piece of another bomb that fell on the court and slit his belly," he added.

In Nuevo Caracol, as now in Buenavista, the Tlacos, sometimes mixed with the local population, defend themselves against La Familia Michoacana, stationed in the surrounding hills, always with the threat of their drone team. If his authorship is confirmed, this new massacre is added to those he has perpetrated in recent years in Guerrero and the south of the State of Mexico, his areas of influence. In San Miguel Totolapan, a little further northwest, criminals from this group murdered 20 people at the end of 2022. Months later, the same group killed a group of villagers in the neighboring town of Coyuca.

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