Hundreds of Indigenous families have been forced to flee their homes in the mountains of central Mexico after a local criminal group decided that drones and heavy artillery were the perfect way to say 'hello.' The attacks, which included drone bombings, have been so intense that the National Indigenous Congress reported on Monday that between 800 and 1,000 families have abandoned their villages in Guerrero state.

The gang, known as Los Ardillos, has been a persistent nuisance in the area for years, but last week they cranked up the volume. On Saturday, villages endured eight hours of bombing, leaving residents in a state of what the congress's spokesperson, Carlos González García, described as 'total anguish.' At least four people were killed. 'The families are terrified, especially the women and children. It's a level of violence that we're not used to,' González said, which makes you wonder what level of violence they were used to before this.

Social media footage shows women and children sobbing in a church, while other videos capture the symphony of gunfire and explosions echoing across the countryside. One woman, who fled with her twin sons, explained in a Facebook video: 'They were attacking us with drones and with .50 high calibre weapons, that's why I left and took my twin sons with me. They killed the animals and now they're setting fire to the hillsides.' A video from the village of Alcozacán, shared with the Guardian, shows the violence continuing into Monday morning.

This isn't just a local problem; it's part of a worrying trend. Mexico's drug cartels have increasingly adopted bomb-carrying drones and other sophisticated weaponry, turning rural communities into modern war zones. A study by Mexico's Ibero University found that the number of people forcibly displaced by violence more than doubled from 12,600 in 2023 to 28,900 in 2024. The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre reports nearly 400,000 displaced people in Mexico as of the end of 2024.

President Claudia Sheinbaum, in a press conference on Monday, assured that 'we're working to protect the population' with the national guard and attention to displaced families, aiming to help them return home. But González suggests the attacks are aimed at the armed community police forces that villagers established to protect themselves from the drug gangs. Los Ardillos are also trying to coerce villagers into growing opium poppies. He accused the local government of being in cahoots with the criminals, noting that three joint military, national guard, and state police bases in the area have done nothing to stop the violence.

'It's the obligation of the Mexican state to provide protection and to investigate any collusion between officials and criminal cartels, and dismantle them,' González said. 'And to punish whoever needs to be punished. Because otherwise, this is going to keep growing and growing.'

Meanwhile, the Guerrero state government claimed on Sunday that only 90 people had been displaced, and that federal and state forces had been deployed for 'security and surveillance operations.' Because clearly, a few extra patrols will make all the difference when drones are dropping bombs.