Criminal Group Los Ardillos Attack in Guerrero, Four Members Disappear, Indigenous Org CIPOG-EZ Reports

BySergio Ocampo Arista, correspondent

This article by Sergio Ocampo Arista originally appeared in the May 11, 2026 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper.

Chilpancingo, Guerrero. The Indigenous and Popular Council-Emiliano Zapata (Cipog-Ez) denounced the disappearance of four of its members, in the community of Xicotlán, municipality of Chilapa de Álvarez, in the Lower Mountain of Guerrero.

Meanwhile, this morning, motorists reported finding human remains, apparently those of four men, while traveling on the highway from Chilapa to the municipality of Tlapa de Comonfort; it is presumed that the bodies were abandoned between 3 and 4 a.m. today, in the vicinity of the Papaxtla intersection, about 5 kilometers from the municipal seat of Chilapa.

In its complaint, Cipog-Ez stated that the towns of Xicotlán and Tula were finally “occupied by the criminal group Los Ardillos, after four days of attacks.”

Mostly children and women have been displaced from their communities Photo: Jesús Plácido

However, so far, the leadership of Cipog-Ez stated that they fear that the four missing colleagues in Xicotlán last night are José Guadalupe Ahuejote Xantenco and Víctor Ahuejote Arribeño.

Jesús Plácido Galindo, leader of Cipog-Ez, stated by telephone that the number of displaced people is not 70, as claimed by the Undersecretary of Political and Social Development of the state government, Francisco Rodríguez Cisneros. “We have already shared photos and videos showing that there are more than a thousand displaced people from the towns of Xicotlán, Tula, and Acahuetlán,” he specified.

He also accused the state official “of being in collusion with Los Ardillos, to displace the Regional Coordinator of Community Authorities of the Founding Peoples (CRAC-PF), and the Cipog-EZ, which have a presence in 16 towns in this region of the Lower Mountain.”

An unexploded explosive device, one of those launched by the Los Ardillos against the community of Tula in Chilapa. Photo: CIPOG-EZ

Jesús Plácido Galindo also denied the presence of military personnel, the National Guard, and the State Police to protect the Nahua indigenous communities. “The attacks continued even yesterday, which is why the thousand families from the three communities, who have been under attack since last Wednesday, were displaced,” he added.

Finally, Plácido Galindo confirmed that since 9 a.m. today, attacks with explosives launched from drones against the population of Alcozacán, where most of the thousand displaced people are located, have resumed.

He also reported that at the crossroads near the town of El Jagüey, close to the village of Atzacoaloya, members of the Los Ardillos criminal group are holding officials from the advance team of the undersecretary, Francisco Rodríguez Cisneros, who said he would be “here in Alcozacán, today at noon,” he concluded.