03/28/11— The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre issued a report stating that there are an estimated 230,000 people displaced as a result of the violence from the Mexican Drug War and other factors. The report, titled Internal Displacement: Global Overview of Trends and Developments in 2010, asserts that in 2010 “most IDPs originated from the states most affected by violence, Chihuahua and Tamaulipas.”
The report also stressed that the Mexican government does not compile displacement figures for people who have had to leave their homes because of “turf battles” between drug cartels, which has forced the Centre to rely on information from local researchers. Based on this information, the Centre estimates that as many as half of Mexico’s IDPs may have migrated to the United States.
While Mexico does not account for displaced populations as a result of the drug war, the Mexican Census taken in mid-2010 revealed that two-thirds of the homes in Praxedis G. Guerrero, a town east of Ciudad Juarez, have been abandoned, most likely due to the violence created from the wars between the Sinoloa and Juarez cartels in the area. The Internal Displacement report also indicates that many IDPs in Mexico were forced to move from their places of origins by other causes than drug violence, such as the 1994 Chiapas uprising.
Sources:
Stevenson, Mark. “Report: 230,000 Displaced by Mexico’s Drug War.” Forbes. March 25, 2011.
Unknown. “Report: 230,000 Displaced by Mexico Drug War.” Jamaica Observer. March 25, 2011.
