Mexico: Limited response to displacement following local and regional conflicts

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^{31 December 2009}

Up to 40,000 people were displaced in the 1990s in the Mexican state of Chiapas during an uprising by the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) and the group’s subsequent confrontations with government forces. OHCHR reported that between 3,000 and as many as 60,000 people were still internally displaced in 2003; and between 5,000 and 8,000 were reportedly still displaced in 2007 according to local NGOs. No new information on displacement in Chiapas was made available in 2009.

While the 1996 San Andrés Accords marked the end of the uprising, divisions within indigenous communities in Chiapas and also in Guerrero and Oaxaca States, based often on religious affiliation, have continued to cause violence and displacement. The Commission for the Development of Indigenous Peoples (CDI), a body created by the government, reported that over 1,000 indigenous members of protestant minorities were displaced from nine districts during 2009.

The CDI reportedly concluded assessments of the situation of IDPs in Chiapas, Guerrero, Hidalgo, Nayarit and Oaxaca States in 2009, but had not released its report by the end of the year.

Meanwhile, violence associated with turf battles between drug cartels in Ciudad Juárez in the northern state of Chihuahua escalated dramatically in 2009, causing tens of thousands of people to flee the city. Up to 200,000 people reportedly left Ciudad Juárez between 2007 and 2009 to escape violence which the local government had been unable to curb.

The situation of this population is largely unknown: those affected have not yet been identified as IDPs and provided with support. This may be due to the fact that their displacement was caused by generalised violence linked not to ideology or armed action against the state, but to control of drug routes by criminal groups. Those displaced were mostly middle-class workers who moved to safer cities such as Monterrey and Guadalajara, and possibly found opportunities in the place of displacement through family networks.

Mexico: Drug-related violence has forced thousands to flee Ciudad Juárez
 
The ongoing generalised violence involving drug cartels in the northern Mexican State of Chihuahua has reportedly forced thousands of people to flee to safer cities within the country or over the border towards El Paso in neighbouring Texas. According to a recent media report, between 75,000 and 200,000 people are believed to have left the city of Ciudad Juárez since mid-2008 fearing attacks, kidnappings, and violence by the drug gangs. Government armed forces acting to control the violence have reportedly committed human rights violations, without demonstrating success in countering the cartels. 

Ongoing drug-cartel violence causes displacement

Violence that exploded in Northern Mexico since 2006 as a result of ongoing confrontations between drug cartels has transformed into full-fledged armed conflict. Since 2006, President Felipe’s Calderón strategy of bringing the Armed Forces to control the cartels has shown no positive impact on reducing violence. In fact, as many assert, military presence since 2006 was the detonating factor for the ongoing confrontations, as it disrupted a tacit balance of power between the drug mafias.

Since 2006, drug-cartel violence in Mexico has killed some 23,000 people. In Ciudad Juárez alone 2,600 people died in 2009 because of this violence. As many as 200,000 people would have been forced to flee this border town to escape violence. Most of these people would have moved to nearby Mexican cities of Guadalajara or Monterrey, but little is known about their situation as IDPs. Those who cross the U.S-Mexico Border into El Paso and other border towns have swelled the number of applications for asylum, the bulk of which are rejected by U.S immigration authorities.

Even though recent decisions by U.S Courts have begun to accept asylum claims based on gang violence, as in the case of Ramos v. Holder, the bulk of petitions are still rejected. Those whose claims are rejected are 'removed' (sent back) to Mexico, and would likely not return to their town of origin, remaining in the country as IDPs. There is little awareness from Mexican authorities about the relationship between drug-cartel violence on forced displacement.

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^{23 December 2009}