Residents of the San Nicolás community, belonging to the municipality of Cocula in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero, reported the disappearance of three men this Friday, bringing the total to 17 in three months. They attribute the disappearances to the criminal group La Familia Michoacana that seeks control of the Media Luna mine.
On the morning of this Friday, armed men set fire to a truck marked with the number 77 belonging to that Canadian mining company Torex Gold on the Chilpancingo-Iguala highway in the Sabana Grande community.
Just last Friday, the residents of that region blocked the Chilpancingo-Mexico federal highway, in the town of Mezcala, to demand the attention of the authorities in view of the escalation of violence that they have suffered as a result of the attempt by this group to take over the area.
One of the inhabitants of Nuevo Balsas told EFE this Friday that the nearby communities are already ghosts because their inhabitants have left. He pointed out that the Michoacan Family forms a ring of desolation that they intend to close until they are hanged in that town with the aim of having control of the Media Luna mine.
The new terror that families face, according to what was declared anonymous for fear, is the installation of checkpoints on the highway that connects to Nuevo Balsas. In these, they said, there are armed men in military-type clothing who interrogate them and check their belongings.
It was at one of those checkpoints, located at the point known as Piedras Negras, on the Cocula-Nuevo Balsas highway, where the three men disappeared, two of them are mining workers and the other is a construction worker.
A displaced inhabitant of the Tomixtlahuacán community recounted between sadness and frustration that his town, along with at least five others, is devastated by the attacks they suffered from high altitudes.
He recounted that his sister, his brother-in-law and his father were murdered.
The extreme poverty they face due to the lack of security, he said, has forced them to return to the trade they have been doing for years, fishing.
“We have nothing,” he said.
He recalled that in 2013 a group of community members was formed to defend themselves, however the government has branded them as illegal and reproached that if the State does not provide them with security they do not know what they can do.
In addition to expelling them from their assets, he denounced, criminal groups sell their belongings and farm animals. He said that in the municipality of Apaxtla they found a stall where they sold their things.
In this regard, the State Attorney General’s Office (FGE) through the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office for Forced Disappearance and Search for Disappeared Persons initiated an investigation folder for the disappearance of the three men.
Said instance reported that their search is being carried out with the support of personnel from the Mexican Army, the Mexican Navy, the National Guard, the State Police and the FGE Canine Unit, which extends to the towns of Las Mesas, San Nicolás and neighboring places of the municipality of Cocula.
“The operations will continue until they find the whereabouts of the victims,” the FGE said in a statement.
On Friday, August 25, residents of Cocula, Eduardo Neri, Cuetzala del Progreso, Tepecoacuilco and Apaxtla, in the northern area of Guerrero, blocked roads due to the disappearance of 13 people. At that time the most recent were seven foremen from Nuevo Balsas who disappeared on August 16 when they returned from work in the central State of Mexico.
EFE
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