Cartel Violence and MS-13 Plague Southern Mexico Border State  

A once peaceful Mexican southern border state is experiencing alarming rates of violence, including large-scale gunbattles, kidnappings, and other violent crimes as criminal organizations fight for control of migrant and drug trafficking routes.

The state of Chiapas, which borders Guatemala, is currently being fought over by the Sinaloa Cartel, Cartel Jalisco New Generation (CJNG), and the Mara Salvatrucha gang, according to a Mexican military report leaked in late 2022 by hacktivists.

The state is currently under the control of Governor Rutilio Escandon, from Mexico’s ruling party Morena. The governor’s staff continuously claims the state is safe. However, in recent days, the U.S. Department of State issued a travel warning following a series of high-profile shootings in the city of San Cristobal de Las Casas, one of the main tourist destinations in Chiapas.

Chiapas is on the southern border with Guatemala and is one of the main entry points for drugs from Central and South America for the Sinaloa Cartel. That criminal organization currently has a presence in the capital Tuxtla Gutierrez, as well as San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas de Corzo, and Villaflores. Military authorities identified Isidro and Jesus Gilberto Rivera as the two highest-ranking Sinaloa Cartel representatives in the area.

CJNG, a bitter rival of the Sinaloa Cartel, currently has the leading presence in Tuxtla Gutierrez.

The Mara Salvatrucha currently has a presence in ten municipalities and, according to the military report, they have expanded into drug trafficking, extortion, money laundering, and human trafficking.

The travel advisory followed an incident where a group of gunmen killed Jeronimo Ruiz, the head of a local merchant organization, El Pais reported. In the aftermath of the shooting, rival groups of gunmen clashed for several hours in a fierce shootout. Authorities have not revealed which drug cartels took part in the shootout or why the leader of the merchant organization was targeted.

Editor’s Note: Breitbart Texas traveled to Mexico City and the states of Tamaulipas, Coahuila, and Nuevo León to recruit citizen journalists willing to risk their lives and expose the cartels silencing their communities.  The writers would face certain death at the hands of the various cartels that operate in those areas including the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas if a pseudonym were not used. Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles are published in both English and their original Spanish. This article was written by “C.P. Mireles” from Tamaulipas and  “E.F. Robles” from Jalisco