Guatemala grants temporary status to 161 Mexicans fleeing organized crime

The letters "CJNG" for the group's formal name, Jalisco New Generation Cartel, covers the facade of an abandoned home in El Limoncito, in the Michoacan state of Mexico, Oct. 30, 2021. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo, File)

GUATEMALA CITY — Guatemala on Wednesday granted temporary humanitarian status to 161 Mexicans who fled their country last week seeking refuge from organized crime, even as Mexican officials denied that anyone had been displaced.

The Guatemalan Immigration Institute said that 39 families, including 69 children, from the Mexican municipality of Frontera Comalapa would be allowed temporarily to remain legally in the country.

The families were staying in rented homes, with relatives or in temporary shelters in the Guatemalan border town of La Mesilla.

But Eduardo Ramírez, governor of the Mexican border state of Chiapas, said Wednesday on X that those who went to Guatemala have relatives who have been arrested and are facing charges in Mexico, a claim he made without providing evidence.

“The organized crime that operates in the neighboring country of Guatemala wants to discredit our public safety strategy that has given tranquility and social peace in Chiapas” by saying people have been forcibly displaced by crime, Ramírez wrote. “I categorically deny that fact.”

It was not the first time that Mexicans crossed the border to escape violence. In July of last year, nearly 600 crossed at another point on the border.

Two of Mexico’s most powerful cartels from the northern states of Sinaloa and Jalisco have been battling for control of smuggling routes in the area of southern Mexico in recent years causing multiple displacements.

In June, Chiapas state police pursued suspects into Guatemala and engaged in a shootout.

____

The Associated Press