Many people have left their houses in southern Mexico because two fighting groups are trying to take over the roads used for smuggling drugs and people.
Local people said they were scared and hiding in their houses while bullets were being shot during a long gun fight.
More than 700 people had to leave their homes near the Guatemala border, according to an official.
The CJNG is trying to take control of the area from the Sinaloa cartel.
Gangs like the CJNG and the Sinaloa cartel have been entering the region because it’s close to the border with Guatemala and has important routes for migrants. The gangs threaten and take money from the migrants.
The communities of Chicomuselo and La Concordia in Chiapas state have been hit the hardest. People in Chicomuselo reported that a fight between two gangs resulted in the deaths of 20 people, including 18 gang members and two local residents, on 4 January.
The community said it was sad to see children and young people feeling scared and getting sick from going through these difficult times. They said the state didn’t do enough to keep them safe.
However, the government in Chiapas said they didn’t hear about any killings in the area when they checked five days later.
The army went to the area, but people who live there are getting hurt when the soldiers fight with the groups selling illegal drugs.
Many families have sailed across the Angostura lake to escape the violence in the area.
The villagers’ small towns now look empty and spooky, according to reporters who live there.
Chiapas civil protection official Luis Manuel García Moreno said on the radio that 701 people, mostly women and children, ran away and went to the city of Comitán.
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Hundreds of people escape southern Mexico cartel wars
