Almost an entire Mexican town has fled their homes as a wave of assassinations and attacks continues to be fuelled by warring cartels and community groups who want their land back.
Tila, in Chiapas, has become a battleground with indigenous farmers claiming that government officials stole their land and sold it off to outsiders who have since settled in the town. A community-led group, called Los Autonomos, has fought to reclaim the land amidst a power struggle between the Mexican government and drug traffickers.
The motives behind the historic land dispute have been reforged over the 90 years, with control of valuable drug and migrant smuggling routes becoming the latest reason. Chiapas is one of Mexico’s poorest states, with around 70% of its inhabitants living in poverty, the area has been under the control of the Sinaloa Cartel, formerly led by Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, but this has been challenged by rival group, the Jalisco cartel.
The grapple for control has seen paramilitary turf wars displace thousands of residents while those remaining live in fear of kidnapping or murder.
“We’re being prosecuted by drug traffickers,” Explained a masked Los Autonomous spokesperson under the alias ‘Antonio’. “They’re kidnapping us, they’re holding us to ransom. They say we’re drug traffickers and who knows what else. They say things like that but that’s not us. We cover our faces like this in order to defend our community.”
In June 2024, the fighting, extortion and cartel wars culminated with Mexico’s largest mass displacement in three years after a three-day siege conducted by heavily armed men broke out. In the wake of the shootings, many residents refused to return to Tila, leaving government troops to patrol empty streets.
“At about 11pm – men arrived carrying machetes. I arrived to find my family panicking, the armed men had threatened them with guns. They were talking about my wife – saying in their language ‘Let’s kill the woman.'” An anonymous resident told The Times.
The cartels have barricaded towns, kidnapped police and murdered at will with masked gunmen going door-to-door in Tila as they extort businesses and individuals. The drug trafficking groups also stand accused of arming community groups, such as Los Autonomos, as affiliates to gain power.
“We, the people of Tila, are caught between two forces,” claims a local under the alias of ‘Daniel’. “I’m talking about Los Autonomos and Grupo Karma.” Grupo Karma is a rival community faction said to be entangled in the town’s power struggle. The group and Los Autonomos are believed to have played their own part in the three-day siege that took place last June.
“The people who attacked us are from neighbouring towns,” Explained a Los Autonomos spokesperson detailing an attack the group faced at the hands of Grupo Karma. They paid a group of hitmen to attack us. They gave us 12 hours to get out of here. Which weapons did they use? AR-15s and AK-47s. There were some among us who were prepared.”
Los Autonomos insists its members “are not bad people” despite reports that some in Tila also fear them. “Locals, neighbours: we aren’t bothering anyone. We are respectful and disciplined – we are not bad people.” The spokesperson added.
Luis Abarca, a member of the Digna Ochoa Committee for Human Rights, reports that Los Autonomos is backed by the rising Jalisco cartel while their Sineloa rivals fund Grupo Karma.
“These minor crime groups each work for one of the two big cartels, who are fighting each other. They’re battling over the multi-million dollar business of trafficking migrants, drugs and other things. It’s unthinkable that these groups could have grown so much and gained so much firepower without government support. They allowed cartels to proliferate in the area and what’s at stake is the dispute between the cartels.”
The Mexican government has been criticised for its lack of response to the ongoing turf war, calling it a mere ‘local conflict of no real importance’ despite nearly the entire town of Tila fleeing.
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