CHILPANCINGO, Gro. (Process).- The current crisis in the capital of Guerrero triggered by the open confrontation between Los Ardillos and Los Tlacos, formerly allied criminal groups, is a reflection of the “fragile statehood, outside the law” that exists in the state, says researcher Gabino Solano Ramirez.
Responsible for the study project of violence in the entity by the Autonomous University of Guerrero, Solano Ramírez gives to Process his explanation of the increase in violence and the recent mobilizations and blockades in which hundreds of residents have been involved, particularly those that occurred between Saturday the 8th and Monday the 10th of July.
At three in the afternoon on Monday, the curtains of the businesses were lowered, public transport and work in schools and offices were suspended, in front of the angry crowd that surrounded Los Ardillos and challenged the deployed corporations, hours after the bloody attacks on taxi drivers and vehicle fires.
“The border between the legal and the illegal becomes porous, diffuse, and only becomes visible when the non-formal factor, the armed social sector, shows its capacity for violence. That is what happened in Chilpancingo”, says the academic.
The State has worked, abounds, through informal channels. And he gives as an example the cacicazgos, the “strong men” who for a long time dominated the politics, economy and social clamor of the state, from Rubén Figueroa Figueroa to Ángel Aguirre Rivero.
“The State, in its relationship with society, works through informal mechanisms. And it becomes more visible in a context where violence has increased. The governance and justice structures begin to be co-opted by those of de facto power.
“It is the context from which this growing presence of armed groups that are controlling the illegal markets in the state arises; the most visible, that of extortion, drugs and the criminal”.
In the case of Chilpancingo, he explains, the State acted through its police with the capture of two characters linked to the crime, but the other actor, the informal one, showed his power of mobilization and control that he has in the region.
Los Ardillos, indicates the researcher, “is a powerful group if we consider the mobilization capacity of thousands of people. “That is the power of blackmail. Something broke in the negotiations, ”he points out.
violence map
A state government crime map indicates that 16 organized crime groups and cells operate in the state dedicated to extortion, land collection, exploitation of natural resources, transfer and distribution of drugs.
Los Ardillos have a presence in a corridor of municipalities in the Central and Mountain area, as well as part of the Costa Chica.
In the center from Chilpancingo, Tixtla, Quechultenango, Mochitlán, Chilapa, Zitlala, Mártir de Cuilapan and in the Mountain in Atlixtac, José Joaquín Herrera, Ahuacuotzingo, Acatepec and Zapotitlán Tablas. And in Ayutla and Teconapa on the Costa Chica.
Meanwhile, the Tlacos are present in the Central, North and Mountain regions. At the Center in Chilpancingo, Juan R. Escudero, Eduardo Neri, Leonardo Bravo and Heliodoro Castillo. In this strip of the mountains there is also a presence of Los Jaleacos.
They also operate in the north in Iguala, Tepecoacuilco, Huitzuco, Cuetzala del Progreso, Apaxtla and Teloloapan.
The map warns of the presence of this organization in municipalities of the Mountain.
According to the report, the three groups that have shown territorial expansion in recent years are Los Ardillos, Los Tlacos and La Familia Michoacana.
As the 2024 electoral process looms, criminal violence has already claimed its first victim in the municipality of Copala on the Costa Chica de Guerrero: on June 28, the leader of the Green Party, Jesús González Ríos, was kidnapped and his remains found at the next day with traces of torture. He was threatened to withdraw from politics.
“Elections experience the same process of siege by criminal groups, more and more those who aspire to political power must have the approval of one of the groups that control that region,” reflects researcher Gabino Solano.
In their ambitions to get there, he adds, those who aspire to political power generally make economic agreements, transact or negotiate with criminal groups and that commits them for their entire term. And you can’t get away from those commitments. The way out, he says, is to separate politics from illegality.
“The way out is that we have honest politicians, not contaminated with agreements with those groups. This will allow us to have a strong government structure”, concludes Solano Ramírez.
