The forced flight of up to a thousand families from the foothills of Guerrero’s mountains marks the latest episode of a years‑long campaign by Los Ardillos to seize territory in central Mexico. The group, which has battled rivals for control of the region, escalated its violence on Wednesday when it began striking communities with handmade explosives launched from drones and using powerful weapons, according to CIPOG‑EZ, an organization that represents the communities.
The attacks peaked early Sunday, Mother’s Day, when residents streamed out of their homes under cover of darkness. Video shared with the Associated Press showed families—some carrying only backpacks—hurrying along roads as the sound of sustained gunfire echoed in the distance. Other images showed drones rigged with explosives lying in the brush, and farmland punctuated with fire.
Marina Velasco, who spoke on behalf of CIPOG‑EZ, said the terror was of a kind the communities had never before experienced. “These have been days of terror,” she told the AP. “They’ve been bombing communities with drones, and how can one defend themselves from a drone, with bombs falling from the sky.”
Many of those who fled have taken shelter in a soccer field in a nearby town, Velasco said. While there is a small presence of state actors, she added, the communities had been largely abandoned by Mexican forces, a claim that echoed years of complaints from rural areas where drug cartels operate with near‑impunity.
CIPOG‑EZ has tracked the toll of the conflict in detail. Its records show 76 people killed and 25 people missing in recent years because of the actions of Los Ardillos. The group’s nine‑day surge of violence is only the most visible layer of a pattern of displacement that has reached levels the council describes as untenable.
Cartels in Mexico have increasingly used drones and more sophisticated weaponry in their territorial battles, a sign of how deeply entrenched the criminal economy has become in regions like Guerrero, where once‑cohesive cartels have splintered into warring factions. In response, some communities have formed self‑defense militias to fight back, but the disparity in armament between villagers and combatants with drone‑deployed explosives has left many feeling helpless.
The new wave of displacement comes as the administration of President Claudia Sheinbaum promotes a sharp drop in national homicide rates—roughly 40% since she took office—as evidence that her tougher security posture is working. Sheinbaum has broken with the less confrontational strategy of her predecessor and applied more direct pressure on cartels, partly in answer to repeated threats from U.S. President Donald Trump, who has floated military action against the groups. Sheinbaum has called such a move “unnecessary,” but the government’s narrative of declining violence collides with the experience of communities like those in the Guerrero mountains, where the state is conspicuous by its absence and the dead and missing continue to mount.