mexico cityAP —
Bombs began raining down from cartel drones at 6 a.m. Wednesday, just as the sun rose over the mountains of central Mexico.
The now-under-siege group of rural communities known as Guajes de Ayala had been warning law enforcement in Guerrero state for weeks about the growing threat from the infiltrating cartel La Nueva Familia Michoacana. But their calls for help went unheeded as major cities such as Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey were engulfed in World Cup celebrations.
Now, all 24-year-old Marilu Solorio can do is hide in a nearby abandoned clinic with 70 other women, children and elderly people. I could only hope that the constant sound of drone explosions and gunfire between cartels and local vigilantes would end.
And when that happens, they’ll all still be alive.
“Some people celebrate the goal, while others are slaughtered by bomb-laden drones,” Solorio said by phone from a shelter. “Instead of protecting people in places where the World Cup is being held,[the Mexican government]should be protecting people like us who have done nothing wrong.”
Mexican authorities quickly denied the attack in the violence-hit state of Guerrero, despite livestreamed video by local residents that showed gunfire and plumes of smoke from mountain lookouts they had set up to watch for signs of cartel presence.
The attack comes as Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has spent months grappling with how to deal with rampant criminal violence in the country.
Killings have plummeted under Sheinbaum’s administration, but pressure has increased over the past year as Mexico sought to find security and stability ahead of the World Cup after riots broke out in February in Guadalajara, one of the host cities. The situation has worsened with additional threats from US President Donald Trump to take military action against cartels and other domestic political divisions.
As a result, Mexico doubled security at World Cup venues, deploying 100,000 security forces to protect the tournament, primarily in Mexico City, Monterrey and Guadalajara. The tournament in Mexico, which concluded on Sunday, went off without any major security incidents.
While soccer fans packed the streets of major cities to celebrate the sport and memes of ducks in Mexican jerseys flooded social media, violence continued in many parts of the country. Mexican security analyst David Saucedo says attacks like those in Guajes de Ayala and other regions plagued by cartel violence are the result of the government’s World Cup security strategy.
“Security was tight in Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey. Many soldiers and National Guard troops were transferred from other states to strengthen the World Cup sites,” Saucedo said. “But in doing so, we also left many areas that were not host cities unprotected.”
A naval officer and 10 suspected gang members were killed in weekend clashes between criminal groups in the northern state of Sinaloa. Last week, the local government in the southern state of Veracruz found the body of a kidnapped journalist and said he had been murdered by a criminal gang.
Eight bodies were discovered Wednesday in a pile of cartel messages in the southern state of Chiapas, which has been plagued by violent cartel power struggles in recent years.
The community of Guajes de Ayala warned law enforcement that the cartel was closing in on their town and shared videos on social media showing cartel drones flying overhead and cartel fighters inching closer to their homes.
They said they feared an imminent attack. Solario says no one helped him.
It came to a head Wednesday morning. Solario and her group sought refuge from a gunfight at an abandoned clinic, while others sought refuge in a church elsewhere.
Local and federal authorities did not immediately respond to requests for comment, but after The Associated Press inquired about the attack, Mexico’s Security Cabinet posted to X that “the events described in the news article have been ruled out by the authorities.”
The post added that national security forces were “heading to the area to assess the situation, strengthen organizational presence and provide security to the population.”
Authorities have previously denied accusations that they have abandoned the Guerrero community, but when The Associated Press recently visited the area, there was no government presence anywhere near the community.
For years, La Nueva Familia Michoacana, which was designated a foreign terrorist organization by the Trump administration last year, has expanded into Guerrero, along with other Mexican cartels and Latin American gangs.
Hundreds of people were evacuated from their homes after the attack and what the community said was the absence of security officials. In recent years, men in the area have formed vigilante groups to fight back.
The vigilante group was armed with rival cartels competing for territory with La Nueva Familia Michoacana, and carried military weapons, grenades and drones smuggled from the United States, which they used to monitor invading cartels.
In places like Guerrero, where criminal factions have been fighting for decades, local residents have long argued that the question is not if, but when, they will face new attacks.
